Unlikely and Unusual - BNHA Rarepair Month 2018
by Juni Onigiri
Summary: Entries for this year's BNHA Rarepair Month 2018! See inside for pairs.
1. Day 1 - Kiss - TetsuKendo

**Unlikely and Unusual - BNHA Rarepair Month 2018  
** Day 1 - Kissing

* * *

Tetsutetsu's head is on the verge of exploding.

There are numbers in front of him. So many numbers. Some of them big and small. There are also lots of lines and curves and symbols that he doesn't even know existed before then. And letters. Why are there letters here, if it's math?

"You can do this, Tetsutetsu." Radiating good vibes, positive energy, beauty, and hope for his dim future in mathematics, Kendou Itsuka points to one of those combinations of letters and numbers on his messy sheet of paper with the end of her pencil. "Use this formula for problem #3. I'll guide you through it step by step."

And she does, slowly, like teaching the alphabet to a kindergartner. Tetsutetsu's a lot embarrassed that she's taking so much time with him just to make sure he passes the next exam, but at least it's a lot of time sitting next to the prettiest girl in school!

He isn't sure if it's a good thing that Vlad-sensei assigned her to teach him math, though. Precisely because he's head-over-heels, neck-deep, hopelessly in-love with Kendo Itsuka. Just sitting next to her, smelling the girly scent of some exotic flower that he won't be able to identify ever, is causing him to get hot. What's the melting point of iron again? Is he in actual trouble?

"Tetsu? You still with me?"

Tetsutetsu blinks. Teal eyes are staring right into his, just inches away. So close. So close. "Y-yes I am, Kendo-san! S-sorry, I'm too dumb for things like this, so-"

She's pouting at him, and before he knows it his stupid iron teeth are gnashing together in panic. She sighs. "Don't say self-deprecating things like that, Tetsu. And really, you're still calling me Kendo?"

He's a little confused, and not just because he's not sure what 'self-deprecating' means. "Why wouldn't I call you Kendo-san, Kendo-san? It's your name after all…"

She tilts his head at him cutely. She's so close, her vermilion side-ponytail's brushing against his bare shoulder. Ah, so soft. "I have a first name, Tetsutetsu. Come on, I've been calling you by your first name since we started going out." She pauses, and giggles. "Not that anyone would know, anyway."

He feels his face heat up. G-going out?! With Kendo-san, the prettiest girl in school?! The class president? The girl of his dreams?! Since when?!

"What?! Don't tell me you didn't know?!" Kendo sighs exaggeratedly. "Tetsu, I literally asked you a couple of days ago if you wanted to go out with me, and you said yes!"

Ah! Two days ago? Yes, Tetsutetsu remembers Kendo-san banishing Monoma out of the empty classroom that afternoon, so that she could ask him if he was interested in going out with her. And he said yes, and they went out for ramen together, and when they got home, Kendo-san texted her that she had fun and she'd love to do that again, and…

Wait. So. That's when… they went out? Back then, Tetsutetsu took it literally. Like, going out of school. Not like it was a date or something, but…

The beautiful girl next to him is staring at him curiously, a little worried. A pale hand on his arm. "Tetsu, so you didn't know that it was-"

"Th… that was a date-" He stammers out stupidly. And then, just as stupidly, he stands up on their table in the library and shouts, with all the joy in his stupid little heart, "I… I WENT OUT ON A DATE WITH KENDO-SAN AFTER ALL! _"_

The girl now has a hand to her face as a number of stern librarians glare at them and shush the loudmouth ironboy. Her face is red, and she's shaking a little, and she must be so embarrassed that she might just change her mind.

"K-kendo-san… I'm sorry… I'm really stupid. I must be dreaming, a perfect girl like you, going out with a dumbass like me," he stammers, quieter this time. It won't surprise him if she dumps his real steel ass right there and then, but instead, the girl looks up at him, a perfect smile on that perfect face.

"You are stupid for thinking that," she tells him, and he flinches a little.

And she leans in and puts her lips to his, and instead of the mortifying embarrassment, he tastes the strawberry flavor in her lip gloss, and smells that beautiful girly flower smell from her wild, vermilion hair. His eyes are wide open, and he sees her long, beautiful eyelashes fluttering closed, in a real and proper kiss.

She pulls away from him the next moment with a devious smile on her face. "I hope that clears things up, Tetsu. I think you're pretty perfect too."

He feels actual steam going out of his ears. Damn, he loves this girl so much he wants to explode.

In the next moment, Kendo moves on to tell him about the next equation, but all he's able to think of is strawberries, the closeness of her, and how he got dangerously close to the melting point of iron just then.

* * *

 **AN:** My first ever foray into a challenge hihi cos i love them rarepairs  
I have plans for the pairs I'm gonna write but let me know if you have requests anyway ^_^  
This chapter is dedicated to 'Guest' who has supported some of my works on FFNet! I love you Guest!


	2. Day 2 - Confessions - BakuTooru

**Unlikely and Unusual - BNHA Rarepair Month 2018  
** Day 2 - Confessions

* * *

Thursday Afternoon. Bakugou's tired, and grumpy, and he has cleaning duty. His mood isn't exactly the best. All he wants is to finish cleaning up the damn classroom, but his partner doesn't seem to have her shit together that day.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the floating uniform set take five fuckin' minutes rearranging all the tables on the right side of the classroom. The fuck. She's moving one chair to the right, and then to the left, and then front and back. If she were nude, it'd look like a horror movie, albeit a shitty and annoying one that only has random furniture moving in 2 cm intervals. It's frankly getting on Bakugou's nerves.

"Oi, Ghost." Hearing his annoyed growl, he sees the back of her blazer straighten out like a ruler. "The fuck's wrong with you? If you're just gonna fuck around with those fuckin' chairs, go the fuck home!"

"H-huh? Oh-" She stammers as if she doesn't realize what she's doing. The front of her uniform turns to him, and empty sleeves flail out in panic. "S-sorry, B-Bakugou-kun! I'll… I'll clean the blackboard n-now-"

His red eyes follow her invisible form with a glare. "Tch," goes his mouth, as he resumes wiping down Raccoon Eyes' desk free of acidic residue.

There's about three minutes of just the sounds of wiping and dusting, before the amiable silence is broken by a fit of coughs. Bakugou turns with a glare to the front of the room, where somehow the girl's head is covered in white dust.

"Oi, the hell are you doing, Poltergeist?!" Bakugou stomps his way to the girl to check the damage. He doesn't know why the fuck she attempted to dust the blackboard erasers where she stood, but now there's chalk on her spot on the floor, on the teacher's desk, and all over __her.__

"Oh my gosh… Why did I-" She's stammering again in between hacking coughs. "S-sorry, Bakugou-kun, I'll take care of-"

"Jesus," grumbles Bakugou. Annoyed sparks begin to form in his palms-only thing that's stopping him from blowing this girl to oblivion is the mess he'll make and have to clean up before he goes home. Shit, he just wants to get this over with. He has homework and eight hours of sleep to do, fuckin' hell. "Like I told ya, Ghost-Face, get your invisible ass home if you're just gonna fuck up!"

"Oh-" She freezes once more-for some reason, the pissed-off blonde is dusting off her shoulders. Some of it gets off her, but some of it gets on her face. "Um… I'm sorry, this-this isn't h-how it's supposed to go-"

"The fuck are you talking about?"

Bakugou sees the outline of the right side of his face, barely. It's creepy how her face is just floating there, but this close, he's seeing round cheeks, a plump mouth, and strands of long, straight hair, coated in white. Might even be cute, if she isn't so invisible. She's probably biting her lower lip, the way part of it just disappears in an empty void. "W-well-it's… um, you-"

"What?! Spit it out!"

"I… I…"

Irritation rises in his head as the girl continues to stammer. "If you don't spit it out, I'm pulling it out of your-"

"I… IlikeyouBakugou-kunpleasegooutwithme-"

His words die in his wide open mouth. His jaw remains slack as the girl proceeds to have a mini-meltdown in front of him. "Oh… oh my gosh I actually said it-I confessed to Bakugou-kun, oh my gosh what am I doing?"

Confessed… to him?! Bakugou's barely able to process her ramble in his angry brain. "What are you-"

"I… I was g-going t-to g-give this to you…" She fishes out a little envelope from her blazer pocket. It's pink and girly and it smells like candy and it has cute stickers of cupcakes with faces on them. __To Bakugou-kun,__ it says in shiny purple gel ink. It looks fuckin' ridiculous in his hands. "Oh my gosh, I'm so nervous-stupid-I shouldn't have just b-blurted it out to you-"

She's wiggling her bottom in embarrassment in front of him. He stares at the envelope, a shit load of questions flooding his brain, trying to figure out if it's a stupid ass joke or not. But on top of it all is this question:

"Uh… who are you again?"

The girl stops mid-wiggle and slowly turns to him. Her chalk-coated face has its jaw dropped.

"Yeah. I don't do names, Ghosty. Can't fuckin' remember yours, so."

Well this is fuckin' awkward. Something shiny makes its way out of where her eye-holes were supposed to be. She raises her arms, charging up, and fuckin' pushes him away.

"Bakugou-kun, you idiot!"

Somehow she takes his advice and runs out of the classroom. Doesn't even bother dusting herself off. He hears her sniffling a little as her uniform set disappears out the door.

He stares at the empty void in front of him. He's annoyed, sure. The girl made a mess and just up and left him to clean it out by himself, like a true fuckin' Poltergeist. But now there's a teeny, tiny, __teensy__ bit of a bad taste in his mouth. Was it guilt? He isn't going to admit it.

He opens the letter and reads through it quickly. In it, he learns that she's been smitten with him since the beginning of the school year because of how strong he is, and how happy she is being close to him every Thursday afternoon for cleaning duty. She even thinks the way he says __fuck__ is endearing, and even though her friends tell her off for her weird choices, she likes him anyway.

Her signature is as girly as the rest of the letter. There are fuckin' hearts all over it, and it's a little nauseating to see.

"Hagakure, huh…?"

He stuffs the letter in his bag and wills himself to forget about it. As he resumes cleaning the mess, he couldn't help the stupid shitty smile making its way up the corners of his mouth.

* * *

 **AN:** Can i make a full story out of this


	3. Day 3 - ProHero Duo - InaCamie

**Unlikely and Unusual - BNHA Rarepair Month 2018  
** Day 3 - ProHero Duo - InaCamie

Warning: Brief mentions of inappropriate workplace behavior. (Seriously, take that kinda thing to HR before it escalates).

* * *

"Nice work today, Ms. Illusion!"

Camie turns to the voice. It's one of the other sidekicks in Team Idaten who went on patrol with her and five others around Camino Ward. The name or quirk she can't remember at the moment. He's handsome, she supposes, he's got a head full of hair and a smile like James Bond. Although, he's got lots of stuff going on in his costume and it's honestly a little confusing. Like, he's probably part robot or something like their boss Ingenium.

On top of all that, he's like, old. Maybe like early forties. Like, old enough to have been there even before the first Ingenium's handling the agency. And maybe rusty too. She smells a little of it when he steps closer to her with a weird smile on his mouth.

She smiles all the same though-she's the noob here and she has to keep up appearances. "Thanks, man. I'm like, so stoked to be workin' here with all y'allz. Pros with the most. It's lit."

He's got a weird face going on. Like, how those train perverts in those H-mangas look before they touch a girl. It's totally icky, is what it is. "So, anyways, Utsushimi-chan, the night is still young. My shift's just about done too. Maybe you want to go with me to a bar nearby? It's not far."

She tries to give him a polite smile, even though the way he says _Utsushimi-chan_ sends an awful shiver down her spine. "Nah, I'm beat. I got like, a major grumbs in my tums and alls I gotta be is in my crib. And I'm like, all for a straight edge life, see what I'm sayin'? So I'd have to say no thanks, man."

The old man squints his eyes, like he's struggling to decipher an ancient foreign language. Camie isn't sure that he understood her when he laughs awkwardly. "I see. Well, maybe coffee then? I know a place nearby too."

"No, that's-"

"You know I'm doing this because I think you got potential, Miss Illusion." He's got that jeepers creepers smile on his face again. Showing off a row of perfect white teeth, he steps a little closer to her. "Really young and fresh, with all your energy. It's really… appealing. If you'll allow me to, perhaps we can talk of a future partnership, outside Team Idaten? You know you'd be interested in getting out of just being a sidekick as soon as possible-"

Her eyes seriously want to roll out of their sockets. He's one to talk, like, isn't he the one sidekicking for like a hundred years now? Team Idaten's a good place for sidekicks, but since Iida Tensei's stepped down, it looks like the standards have dropped a little bit. "Yeah, like I told ya, no thanks. I need to get back-"

She can't keep the disgust on her face as the guy just grabs her hand and says, persistently, "It's just coffee with one of your senpais at work, Utsushimi-chan, why're you so fickle-"

She has half a mind to form an illusion right there and then. Like, maybe somethin' fugly growing out of her face. A cryptid or something. And she's starting to work on it, because the guy's getting closer and closer, until something loud crashes right next to her.

"UTSUSHIMI-SENPAI! GOOD EVENING!"

Camie's got her mouth real wide as her eyes fall on the giant who's got his head bowed down so low it made cracks on the tile. The crash startles enough people, including the old dude, who's instinctively jumped five steps back.

She doesn't need to wait for the hulking figure to straighten up to know who it is. "Oh my gosh! My mans, Broarashi!"

"YES IT'S ME! IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME, SENPAI!" Indeed, Yoarashi Inasa stands up to his full height in the next second. He's bleeding from where he voluntarily hit his head on the pavement, but he's got that same huge trademark grin on his face and that same intense look in his eyes.

"True that!" She can't help but run her eyes up and down his figure. They haven't seen each other since she graduated maybe three years ago. Somehow the lad's gotten even taller. Like, he's almost seven feet tall. And somehow he's gotten bulkier-she sees the cuts of large muscles moving nicely under his blood-red military hero costume. "Look at you! You're so frickin' jacked, man."

"AS DO YOU!" He says this in his usual loud volume. Out of the corner of her eyes, she sees people cover their ears. "I DID NOT KNOW YOU WORK IN THIS AGENCY, SENPAI! YOU LOOK SO PROFESSIONAL!"

She allows a giggle. It's comforting that he's still the same fired-up kid she left at Shiketsu High three years ago. "So what's up, bro? What brings you to our humble abode? Come to join our party?"

"ACTUALLY, I DROPPED BY HERE AFTER PATROL TO DELIVER PAPERS FROM THE ENDEAVOR AGENCY SINCE TEAM IDATEN IS ON THE WAY. BY THE WAY, YES, I WORK THERE. AFTER RESOLVING MY INTERNAL CONFLICT AGAINST THE TODOROKIS-"

"Cool man, cool. Legendary." She touches his arm and winks at him to stop him before he says too much. "I got ya. Peace emoji and rainbows and love and all that."

"GOOD. YES. GOOD." This time, he trains those intense eyes to where the other dude is glaring daggers at him. "I SEE YOU ARE TRYING TO INVITE MY SENPAI FOR DRINKS."

The man's got all his thunder stolen. He's only able to sputter, "Y-yes, I was, before we were so rudely interrupted."

Camie's got an urge to scowl, but next to her, Yoarashi steps in the space between them. He's so frickin' _tall,_ his shadow completely engulfs the other guy in a disconcerting darkness. "I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU'RE FIRED UP TO SPEND TIME WITH MY AMAZING SENPAI, BUT SHE SAYS SHE ISN'T INTERESTED IN DRINKING ANY KIND OF BEVERAGE WITH YOU."

"Wh-hey, you should mind your own business!" Even as he says so, he takes a huge step outside of Yoarashi's shadow to look at Camie suggestively. "If Utsushimi-san isn't interested, she can tell me that herself. Isn't that right… kouhai?"

This time, Camie doesn't smile. "Ya, and I've been tellin' ya no for, like, ever. Tho your old ass couldn't take a hint."

The guy's jaw drops in shock.

"Like, my cute kouhai didn't have to tell ya what's up, but you don't look like the type who believes that no means no. Okay, like, I get it, maybe ya still think y'alls live in the 50s and old farts like you only believe girls when other guys tell ya what's up. But, since it looks like you're hard of hearing, I'll try again, ya know?"

Sensing her aura, Yoarashi steps aside with a smirk. This time, there's not a hint of his shadow over the old guy as Camie steps to him surrounded by a forcefield of intimidation. He steps back instinctively as she continues, "I. am. not. Flippin'. Interested."

She's prodding a well manicured finger at his chest by the time she's done. Even then, he has the gall to look _offended_ at her remarks. "Utsushimi-san, you're making a grave mistake."

Camie doesn't back down. "Let's see what HR has to say about that, yeah?"

There's a cocky smile on her lips as she says this. The guy tries an intimidating smile himself and begins to glare at the other young pros milling about before he steps out of the room completely.

"SENPAI! YOU'RE THE LEGENDARY ONE. I'M TOUCHED." When the brunette turns to her tall kouhai, he's already weeping tears of joy. "ARE YOU OFFENDED THAT I INTERFERED? I KNOW YOU COULD HAVE HANDLED THAT WELL ALL ON YOUR OWN BUT I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF."

Somehow he manages to keep crying with a huge grin on his mouth. Camie laughs heartily at him and gestures for him to follow her out the building. "Yeah, we're cool, Broarashi. You were just worried for me, yeah?"

"THAT'S RIGHT! I HOPE HR DOES SOMETHING ABOUT THAT MAN. HE'S GIVING A LOT OF PROS A BAD NAME."

Camie shrugs as they walk down the street. "It's just reality, my man. It isn't the first time this happened to me, ya know. I mean, I worked in another agency before and same shit happened to me." She decides not to tell him that shit's actually worse, and looks like shit's not changing. Even as they walk down the street, she sees men staring at her with creepy smiles on their faces. Granted, there's a little less today because a 7-foot-tall Yoarashi, who could probably crush their skulls with his pinky finger, is walking next to her, but doesn't that mean that the situation's worse than it looked? Are men never going to back off unless she's got a giant of a man walking next to her?

"THAT'S TERRIBLE. I WISH THERE'S SOMETHING I COULD DO FOR YOU." Well, he's an earnest enough guy. She supposes that while she works hard to rise in the ranks and change society's outlook on women pro-heroes, Yoarashi's not a bad person to walk along beside her.

"I know, right? But I'm totes okay, dude. I just wanna do this sidekick gig for a little while, get like mad stacks, then make my own agency." She glances way, way up at him to look him in the eye. "Yo, I just got a totally lit idea."

"A LIT IDEA, YOU SAY?"

Yoarashi stops his wide stride to stare at Camie curiously. She gives him a thousand megawatt smile and declares, "We should, like, make our own agency! Like, a pro duo. Me and you and a brand new crew."

"M… me… and you…?"

"We can make up a wicked new name… like… Team GaleLusion! Bam! Shit's gonna be lit!"

"G… GaleLusion, you say."

It's only then that Camie realizes that Yoarashi's volume goes all the way down. Like, he isn't talking in all caps anymore. She looks up at him and sees that his face is doing… _something_ she can't understand. Wide eyes, a slack jaw, and his eyebrows are just stuck in the middle.

"Or… I mean, if you want to stay in the Endeavor Agency… that's okay too," she adds, just a smidge embarrassed. Okay, a lot embarrassed. She tucks a lock of her long hair behind her ear and tries to look natural. "I mean, no pressure from me, dude, you and me, we're just chill-"

"BEST. IDEA. EVERRRRR"

She yelps a little as he takes her in his giant hands and spins her round and round. He's laughing really hard and really _loud_ as he makes a tornado out of the two of them _._ "PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR ME, SENPAI. WE'RE GOING TO BE THE MOST LIT, MOST FIRED UP HERO AGENCY IN THE WOOOORLD," he shouts with wild abandon. The people around them who know how to preserve themselves have already cleared a ten-foot radius around them.

And then, as if he didn't realize what he just did, he turns as red as his costume and puts her down. She's a little wobbly and out of breath once he's done, and he offers her his arm so she can steady herself.

"What I mean is, yes, Utsushimi-senpai," he says, back to his small-caps, dashing gentleman mode. There's a new softness to his grin as he looks back at her. "I like that idea! I'm going to work so hard for that, just you wait!"

She's a little red in the face too, when she takes his arm and smiles up at him. "Awesome, fam. Lookin' forward to it."

"SO WE SHOULD BE A FAMILY? WE SHOULD GET TO CITY HALL. FILL OUT A MARRIAGE FORM."

"Fam, chill. You're, like, so intense…" Nevertheless, she smiles at the thought and doesn't let go of his arm as their conversation flows naturally, like the wind.

They continue their walk through the city, not minding the curious glances, excited stares, and the judgmental glares of the people around them, who managed to overhear the making of the unstoppable force that is GaleLusion.

* * *

 **AN:** It's so hard to make Camie talk but I like how I wrote her here~  
Take care at work, guys!


	4. Day 4 - MorningsNights - NaoMight

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Chapter 4 - Early Mornings, Late Nights - Naomight

* * *

Toshinori opens his eyes to an empty room and an empty, unrumpled space next to him.

He gets up slowly-the bones on his back, shoulders, and limbs complain with the simple motion. By the time he's upright, he's a little lightheaded. Little pinpricks of light cloud his vision that slowly dissipate.

 _He's gone early._ The voice in his head is solemn, quiet. Matter-of-fact. Resigned. The left side of his chest stings slightly, but it's not as bad as it is on bad days.

Carefully, he steps off the bed and walks to the kitchenette in his pajamas. It's as empty and as unrumpled as the bedroom. He'd clung onto the hope that perhaps he'd collapsed from his shift on the couch, as merciless shifts in work sometimes drive him to do, but it seems that it's not the case.

The only evidence of life is a coffee mug, with the colors and sigil of All Might-a tacky, cheap thing, but nevertheless his favorite mug-empty, with just the stains of yesterday's instant coffee inside it.

He sighs. He supposes that leaving him his own dirty dishes to clean when he gets home from work is a little petty given their present arrangement. Between them, it's Toshinori who suddenly has more time what to do with. It's time to clean this mug out.

And he does-takes the cold mug in his hands, washes out all stains. Tries not to think about how the last time they've seen each other is three days ago, and the last time they've seen each other awake is probably a lot longer than that. Tries not to think about how living together isn't much different from their hero days, where they both struggled with their schedules to sneak out eating in cafes on their days off, which are far and few in between.

It doesn't take long before the mug is cleaned. Toshinori wipes his thin hands on a towel and makes his way to the couch. He thinks about watching the news-maybe there's a new crisis, a new danger that he has to confront. He knows that all he does is worry these days and feel sorry about his own body that's reduced to a skeleton that's somehow still together… so he's reluctant to do even just that.

He picks up his phone and reads his messages. There's one he takes time in reading, sent at one in the morning: _Staying the night. I'll be back by dinnertime later. Please look forward to it, Toshi-kun._

 _So he wasn't even home in the first place,_ he thinks to himself a little sadly. An apologetic smiley stares at him at the end of the message. Nevertheless, he smiles back at the message.

He types in a reply: _Excellent! Work hard! Don't forget to eat breakfast and lunch and dinner! Do you me to bring you a bento? Do you need a change of clothing? Please advise Tama-kun against smoking too much, and about Kenji-kun…_

Before he knows it, the message already takes up most of his screen. He falters for a bit and asks himself why his message suddenly sounds so motherly, but he does not edit out anything. All of them are his honest concerns, after all.

He adds one last line to his message before he sends it out:

 _I'll look forward to having you safe at home, Nao-kun._

It's been a while since he's out this late. The faculty spent a lot of time on the promotion board, deliberating each and every student in the Hero, Support, Managerial, and General tracks; adjusting the curriculum for the remaining years; poring over new security measures to keep the students safe; arguing over the form of the incoming entrance exams…

The entrance exam discussion took especially long because of Aizawa-kun's criticisms. They made so many drastic changes to it to give chances for students who have anything other than physical quirks. Took so much time, too. It isn't physically taxing, but even the full day of sitting with the faculty has his bones complaining.

By the end of it, he's consciously trying not to pay heed to the shooting pains at his lower back. He thinks he's made a good show of masking his discomfort. It's a fifty-fifty chance that no-one's noticed it, or they just pretend not to, for his sake.

He bids his fellow teachers goodbye in the next minute, and checks the time. He'll still be able to make it if he runs, and so he does.

Normally, Makoto's there to pick him up and bring him home, but today he politely asks her to let him handle this on his own. He runs fast, and for an acceptable distance before his chest complains, but it's definitely far away from what he's able to do before. He tries not to think about his losses, again. Young Midoriya's doing a good job of nurturing One for All. It's his time, and it's Toshinori's time to be quirkless, and normal, and…

Breathless. He's wheezing by the time he's made it to the shop, which is minutes away from closing. People glance at him, ask him if he's all right without recognizing who he is (or was). It's a struggle not to cough out a fresh spurt of blood. He's grateful that he's able to keep it together, and he's able to ask if his order is ready without any worrisome noises escaping from his mouth.

Finally, he walks the familiar streets home, to their quiet apartment in an unassuming neighborhood. It takes him some time to take the elevator, and by the time he's outside their door, it's already 10 PM.

It's all right, he sighs to himself. No matter how late it is, the apartment's usually empty when he gets there. He opens the door and smells…

Roses.

He's a little flustered as he peers through the apartment. In a daze, he kicks off his shoes and takes careful, bashful steps in the living room. He holds the little box of Osaka crabs in front of him and takes in the sight gratefully.

Naomasa's lying on the couch, eyes closed, arms crossed in front of him, chest rising and falling quietly in a paced rhythm. His signature tan coat's draped over the back of the couch, leaving him with just a neat pinstriped shirt and dark slacks. The tie around his neck is loosened and relaxed. His face isn't tense, as it tended to be these days because of the surge of villains in town. He's able to appreciate how clean and ageless and neat his appearance always seems to be.

He's warm and safe and all in one piece, in a place to call their own. It's another blessed day. Toshinori feels himself breathing a little easier as his eyes fall on his peaceful figure.

Two dozens of red roses are on the table, wrapped in blue and red and white. Toshinori bends over to take them and put them in water, when he hears the figure on the couch move slightly.

"Toshi-kun?" The other man breathes in sharply, takes a hand up to rub his bleary dark eyes to wakefulness.

"Nao-kun." He hears the smile on his own voice as he says the name. "I'm home."

Naomasa smiles back at him. It only takes the earnest detective a few seconds to be alert and on his feet, but Toshinori also feels the exhaustion looming over him. "Would you look at that? It's finally my turn to say that you're home late."

"I'm sorry." Despite this, they both have a good laugh out of it. He places his gift on the table next to the roses and sits next to the space that Naomasa makes for him. "You know how it is. Heroes never rest… that includes people other than pros. Like police officers. And teachers."

The dark-haired man hums in agreement. "It's our turn to rest though. For once, I think I can spend more than just breakfast with you."

He knows there's a risk that this earnest half-promise of his can be easily broken, and for a good reason-villains running amok in the city, treacherous criminals both over and underground, massive casualties, anything can break the little peaceful universe they have in their apartment. He also knows that there's a risk that one of these days, the unrumpled side of his bed might remain unrumpled permanently, that there's a chance that there'll be nobody else in that lonely apartment to drink coffee, watch the news, collapse on the couch after a long day-

Toshinori knows it, having lived that type of life for more than a few decades, so he knows that all he's able to do is to treasure what he has right here, right now.

Thus, he holds the man sitting next to him close, tries not to laugh or smile too much as he realizes that again, he's used the rose-scented bath salts he gave to his sister as a present. "I missed you, detective."

"Me too." Naomasa holds him close too, and suddenly his chest feels lighter and pain-free.

"Happy anniversary, Toshi."

* * *

 **AN:** I loved writing this. Tsukauchi's one of my favorite characters, and I love the dynamic between him and All Might in BNHA: Vigilantes. Please read it if you haven't yet. The relevance of their gifts to each other in this story makes more sense if you read one of the chapters there ^_^ **  
**


	5. Day 5 - Firsts - IzuJirou

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 5 - Firsts - IzuJirou

 _AN: This snippet also features background Tsuyu/Tsuburaba (TsuTsu?), IidaMei, and ShinTodo (if you squint)._

* * *

Izuku stares at the dance floor, where a mass of people are moving about messily. A deafening, rapid beat is playing overhead. He knows that he'll come out of this dance with a bothersome ringing in his ears.

He sips his punch and flinches. Already, his cheeks are beet red and he knows that someone's spiked it. With alcohol or a bodily fluid from an inebriating quirk, no-one's going to be sure at this hour. He sincerely hopes it's just alcohol, seeing as somehow, he's standing at the corner by himself with nothing else but his little red cup of punch for company.

Moments earlier, he stood chatting with his friends and watched them disappear one by one. Tsuyu-chan left them when she coolly obliged the red-faced Tsuburaba, who spent far too long psyching himself up to ask her for a dance. Uraraka's pulled off of them by the hyper self-proclaimed Bakusquad to have a dance-off with some other guys from 1-B. Iida's been kidnapped-well, not really kidnapped, but forcibly dragged to the dance floor by a mildly inebriated Hatsume-san, who wanted to test a robot that dances the robot only if a human dances the robot along with it.

And finally, Todoroki excused himself to hide under the buffet table to hide from his really aggressive fangirls from the other classes. Apparently, the equally sociable Shinsou's under the table, doing the exact same thing for the same exact reason. Izuku's been listening to their quiet muffled chat about cats, passively wondering if he should join them under there since he's got nothing else to do, when he senses a small figure take a spot next to him against the wall.

"Yo, wallflower."

He turns to the chill voice who called out to him, knowing that it can only come from the coolest person in their class. "Oh-Jirou-san! H-hi."

He's stammering like usual, true, but he hopes he isn't stammering extra tonight. Jirou Kyoka's dressed to the nines like everyone else. She's wearing a dark purple cocktail dress with black lace, dark gloves up to her elbows, leather boots, and a really complex lace choker that would be hard to draw in his hero notebooks. Her ears have tiny metal studs over the helix that somehow makes her ear-jacks stand out attractively.

(And yes, before you ask, he draws _everything_ in his notebooks. Hero costume, uniforms, casual wear, formal wear, EVERYTHING. And he's sure he's going to spend extra time thinking about Jirou tonight just to illustrate all the beautiful details and complexities of her dress).

She gives him a lopsided smile. Her eyes are half-lidded and dark, as per her usual I-could-care-less demeanor. There's a little amused twinkle in there, too, as she opens her mouth to talk. "I see you're having an interesting conversation with the table of pizza rolls next to you."

Izuku gives an awkward laugh and scratches the back of his head. "O-oh-you k-know how it is-s-sometimes y-you just want to t-talk to inanimate objects j-just to see if you can, hahaha-"

Jirou raises an eyebrow at him. Izuku can only watch in mild horror as she taps the top of the table with one gloved hand. "Need supplies down there? Saltines, nachos… godawful punch… cat videos…?"

There's a moment of tense silence, and then, "Nah." Shinsou's drawl comes out loud enough for just them to hear. "We got enough to last us 'til sunrise. Thanks for your concern, though."

"Please continue watching out for us. Much appreciated," Todoroki's stoic reply comes after. Thoroughly busted, Izuku blushes fiercely as Jirou gives him a teasing grin.

"S-sorry, Jirou-san-I-if you saw those g-girls though, y-you'd understand-"

"Yeah, got it. Girls are filthy animals, aren't they."

He yelps at her deadpan. "Th-that's n-not wh-what I m-meant." Before he could stammer on to explain that at least the girls in their class aren't animals, maybe except Tsuyu-chan who's proudly got a frog quirk, Jirou's grabbing his arm and pulling him somewhere else.

This action alone caused all sorts of circuits to explode in Izuku's brain. Too surprised and weak to resist the pull of the surprisingly strong girl, he manages a flustered, "J-jirou-san, w-wait, w-we have to keep watch over the table-" before he realizes that they're in the middle of the dance floor.

"Dude, you think the human heater/air conditioner and the guy who literally brainwashes people need your protection from a few fangirls?" She asks him in amusement, not letting go of his hand. She finds an empty spot on the floor and faces him, taking both of his hands into hers.

He's frozen for a good solid minute or two. His brain refuses to process what's happening before him, even when Jirou's trying to position his hands around her waist. "Like this. Right there. Theeere ya go, big guy."

"U-um," he stutters stupidly. His hands feel so huge over her tiny waist. The feel of the soft, velvety fabric under them makes him blush ten times more. He's red as a tomato, about to turn blue as a blueberry as he feels himself on the cusp of nervous hyperventilation. "What…?" is all he's able to ask the smaller dark-haired girl before him.

She rolls her eyes at him and his stammering as she places two arms decisively over his shoulders. "We're dancing, stupid. You can move side to side, can't you? I know those feet can do other things than shoot-style."

"Er… all right." He steps side to side stiffly, trying to match her steps. He's thoroughly confused, but he somehow doesn't step all over her feet. "B-but, why?"

She shrugs. "It's a school dance. We should be dancing." She gestures with her eyes up the ceiling with a small smile. "Besides… I like this song. It's my jam. I listen to it all the time."

It's only then that he gathers enough wit about him to listen to the song. Mic-sensei's deejaying, and it seems he decided on an eclectic mix of foreign music for their dance. He's barely able to decipher what language the song is, but it's got a nice, chill beat to it.

As if noticing his confusion, Jirou makes a scoffing noise. "What, you don't believe me?"

"It's just, uh, you don't look like the type to listen to… um, Italian…?"

 _Ya puede caernos encima un diluvio de estrellas…_  
 _Quiero bailar un slow with you, como aquel…_

"Spanish." She takes one of his stiff arms up and does a quick little spin. Her asymmetric fringe floats and spread with the movement, yet remains straight and neat as they fall back on her face. The bottom of her dress does a little thing too, making her appear like she's rising into the air for a few magical moments. Like a dark fairy casting a spell. A good and proper princess of darkness. A really breathtaking heroine-in-the-making.

Izuku's mesmerized watching her up close. He feels a little light-headed as he attempts to put his clumsy hands back on that tiny waist to resume their dancing.

He doesn't have a lot of courage to look her in the eyes while they dance. He keeps them to the floor and his shoes about 70% of the time. (He wonders why he insisted on wearing his signature red shoes with his brown suit-Izuku, would it have killed you to wear dress shoes for just one night?)

"Hey, Midoriya-kun."

He looks up at her, curious. For one reason or another she already has a smug smile on her mouth. "Could this be… your first time dancing with a girl? Ever?"

He stumbles over a number of senseless, empty words. Is it really that obvious that being so close to a girl (and such a pretty one at that) is such a new, scary experience for him that he might just drop dead the next moment? He tries to be suave and smooth and to blatantly lie about it, but instead feels the very tips of his ears warm up in protest. "It's-it's m-my f-first time, y-yeah…" he eventually stammers in utter mortification.

She giggles-it isn't mocking, but it's a little too amused for Izuku's comfort. "Hey man, I don't judge. How about a guy?"

"O-oh… no, haven't danced with a guy, ever, either…" Izuku's eyes automatically go back to the security of his shoes. "… I'm j-just a h-human, not a dancer… I m-mean, I barely made it through with the dance team at the culture festival, you know…"

That elicits another amused laughter from Jirou, at least. He's reminded of tinkling bells in the wind as he listens to it. "Like I said, I don't judge. I am, however, feeling slightly guilty that I forced you into your first dance."

His head snaps back up to meet her dark eyes. "Oh! N-no, Jirou-san, y-you don't have to feel g-guilty about it-"

She raises her eyebrows. "You sure? I mean, I'm sure you want your first dance with someone you really like, right? Or at least, like, a person who's actually good at dancing. Not some bored chick who just wants to slow dance to a random-ass Spanish song she's never even heard of before."

 _Time goes by, so slowly…_  
 _I hunger for you-_

Izuku shakes his head so fervently that it wouldn't surprise him if his brain pops out of his ear. "Th-there's n-no-one I had in mind t-to have my first dance anyways, and… Wait, so you don't know this song?"

Jirou shrugs coolly again. "Yeah. I just really wanted to dance with ya." A self-satisfied smile is on her tinted lips. Before he's able to stammer out why (again), she makes a shushing sound. "Doesn't matter, okay? Let's just say… I felt like it."

There's nothing else that Izuku can say to that. He does, however, continue the awkward side-to-side stepping thing he's doing, his eyes this time never leaving her face, his hands never leaving her waist.

Before they know it, the song comes to a halt, and Mic-sensei screeches out to the audience that it's time to get the party bouncing again.

Jirou takes one step away from Izuku's grasp. Calm and cool and collected, as she always is, but suddenly a little reserved, in sharp contrast to the obnoxious EDM that starts to blare out of the speakers. Her eyes are looking down on the floor as she says quietly, over the loud music, "So, that was nice. Thanks for the dance, Midoriya-kun."

Just as she turns away, though, somehow Izuku's hand shoots out and grabs one gloved forearm. She looks at his scarred hand with curiosity, before her dark eyes look for his green ones under the blinking lights of the dance floor.

"Um," he stammers once more, willing the words to come out of his stupid embarrassed mouth, "Jirou-san, if you d-don't mind… I'd love to have my second dance with you, too…!"

He doesn't know why he shouts the last part of his sentence. Maybe because the music's getting louder around them, accompanied by Mic-sensei's quirk-boosted hyping. Maybe because the crowd around them is getting rowdier.

Or maybe because his heart is beating so hard against his chest, he feels his entire body shake. It beats even harder when those dark purple eyes shine at him, and when he watches her pale skin begins to glow pink and warm as the seconds wear on.

There's a huge grin on her face as she opens her mouth to reply. However, before she gets a single word out, a pink head appears over her shoulder, interrupting her next sentence. "GUYS. GUYS. OVER HERE. IIDA'S HAVING A ROBOT-OFF WITH KIRI AND BAKUGOU AND AN ACTUAL ROBOT!"

Ashido-san's shriek snaps them out of a spell they mindlessly went under. Jirou holds Izuku's hopeful gaze for a meaningful second, almost a little apologetically, before she snaps her head to meet Mina's. "The flip?! For real?! Dude, we can't miss that!"

Ashido shouts at them to hurry and leads the way. Izuku's barely processed the utter chaos of the sentence before he feels her smaller gloved hand enclose around his. In the next second, he's being dragged to where the action is happening. Eventually, someone pushes him to the center, and he finds that regrettably, his second dance for the night is a vigorous robo-off with Iida-kun, Kirishima-kun, a super competitive Bakugou-kun, and the robot.

It doesn't matter though. He sees Jirou laughing so hard she's holding on to Yaoyorozu-san for dear life. Eventually, the robot finally gives up, Iida falls on the floor in sheer exhaustion, and Kirishima holds a very inebriated Bakugou back from destroying the 'shitty weak-ass bucket of bolts'. Mic-sensei takes control of the situation, and the music slows down again.

Her musical laughter leading him, Izuku searches for Jirou, takes her hand gently in his, and brings her to the dance floor for his third dance of the night.

* * *

 **AN:** This is for plmqaz121 and , who sent in the request for IzuJirou/DekuJirou. Hope you enjoyed it!

Recommended listening: Slowly - Leiva/Natalia Lafourcade (it was playing while I was thinking of what to write, hence giving me the idea of First Dance heh


	6. Day 6 - Quirk Swap - TodoToko

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 6 - Quirk Swap - TodoToko

 _Warning: Mentions of past child abuse (canon-compliant)._

* * *

Shouto stands at the arena, staring down at his opponent standing just as tensely at the other end. There's a nervous hush over their classmates as they sit on the sidelines to watch their duel.

Tokoyami Fumikage's hands are twitching at his sides. Under the harsh sunlight of the noon, his blood-red feathers shine with clarity, his icy-blue eyes a sharp contrast to the image of fire. Shouto narrows his eyes-this classmate of his may be one of the more diminutive ones in terms of size, but there's nothing diminutive about the flames that he can produce.

He feels his left side twitch-the one with the scar, the raven-coloured half of his head, the dreaded side where Dark Shadow resides.

 _I can feel your fear, Shouto,_ the demon whispers to him mockingly. _Do not be afraid to use me this time._

His scowl deepens as the voice cackles low in his ear. His left side is powerful, true. Frighteningly so, in dark spaces where Shouto's alone with all his fears and self-hatred. Endeavor, the original Shadow user, made sure he has enough of those, with beatings and harsh words and abuse.

It's precisely why he refuses the demon; instead of replying, he holds the rein he has on him tighter, effectively sealing him within the confines of his cape. Dark Shadow stills, but only momentarily. He feels its annoyance and actively ignores it.

Aizawa-sensei stands on the side of the arena. He uses his usual bored drawl, but there's a small, tense twitch over the scar on his face as he regards the two of them. "All right. We have the same rules for this one-on-one duel as the Sports Festival. Basically, if you're incapacitated or out of bounds, you lose. Keep it clean."

The two wordlessly nod, and go into position. Tokoyami positions himself. Shouto readies his right arm.

"Begin."

It isn't even a second after the dark-haired teacher says it when a pillar of ice and a wave of fire clash in the middle of the arena. He hears muffled shrieks from the sidelines at the great noise that emerges from the opposing sides.

Balls of flame come at him one after another; with each flash of light, he feels Dark Shadow within him flinch. Some of them manage to graze his left side, and he's barely able to keep the demon from lashing out of that side to eat the flames. As Tokoyami forms more flames, he waves his right hand in front of him and forms one glacier after another, in the most graceful attempt to create a cage for the fire-bird.

His first few attempts fail; Tokoyami's been working as hard as he is in terms of physicality. After ten minutes of clashing of the elements, Shouto finally gets the upper hand.

With some grim satisfaction, he sees Tokoyami cornered between the last icy fractals he's created and the out-of-bounds area. He covers him further in the ice-lattice, making sure that the ambient temperature within becomes too low to produce a flame.

 _Not bad, Shouto,_ Dark Shadow cackles in his ear, as he tries to keep his teeth from chattering. Aizawa begins to count to five. He's a little relieved-if he fights with his ice any longer, he isn't sure he'll be able to keep the frost from damaging his right side.

On the fourth count, however, a rumbling noise begins to emanate from within the ice cage. Before Aizawa-sensei finishes counting, they see the top of the cage explode, and a streak of vermilion flame rise to the heavens.

Shouto, and the rest of the class, watch in awe as Tokoyami hangs in mid-air, flames sprouting off of both hands like wings. "Fallen Angel: Star of the Morning!" he says with a flourish, as his figure descends from the heavens in a ball of flame, like his hero namesake: the Phoenix.

The half-white, half-dark-haired boy finds himself engulfed in flames. They melt the frost that's beginning to build up on his right side and come dangerously close to burning his dark cowl and bare skin. The scar on his left side begins to ache. He hisses and blocks himself on four sides with towers of ice and tries to recover.

He catches his breath, feels the damage of rapid temperature changes take its toll on his body. Dark Shadow is cackling gleefully in his ear. _See? You cannot win this with just your ice alone, Todoroki Shouto. Listen to me. Use the darkness within you._

"No," he growls back at the demon. "I'll be damned before I use anything that I inherited from Endeavor."

 _You're already damned from the start, since you were born with me._ He feels Dark Shadow smiling within him. Outside the walls of ice, he hears Tokoyami throw one blazing fire after another, in an effort to melt his shield. _Turn away from the light, bring your thoughts to the night. Like that old man taught you. Remember, Shouto?_

He feels his feature darkening, his anger rising from within him like a vast, unforgiving pillar of fire. If he loses his cool, if he uses Dark Shadow in his angry state, he doesn't know what damage he can cause to Tokoyami. To the rest of the class. To the rest of the arena. He's afraid to use it, afraid to give in to the darkness, afraid to see the condescension in that old man's face…

"Todoroki!" Tokoyami's passionate bellow from outside his ice walls break through his reverie. "Be not afraid of the darkness! Use it against me!"

His red eye and onyx eye widens in shock. Dark Shadow makes a dreadful sound. _See? The red crow understands me._

"You too, understand the majesty of the abyss that is yours, and yours alone!" The roars of fire do not stop. He sees the red silhouette of Tokoyami's plumage through the thinning ice. "Embrace it! Give me a fair fight!"

 _Mine, and mine alone?_ Shouto is frozen as the ice continues to melt around him. He's never thought of the Shadow he inherited from that deplorable man as his own. He's always treated it as a curse. He's always thought of it as Endeavor's.

 _Listen to the bird, Shouto_. It's odd, but there's a sudden gentleness in Dark Shadow's grisly voice. Shouto doesn't realize that he's loosened his grip on the demon, and it flows out of him. The shape of the raven's head forms in thin air and stares at him right in the eyes. It opens its mouth and speaks out loud. "I am yours, and yours alone. Use me as you wish, and I will heed your command."

Shouto suddenly remembers, with piercing clarity, those lonely nights after his face is burned by his mother and his body is bruised by his father. His siblings are hidden away from him somewhere far away from him, far enough that he questions if they ever existed at all. There's nothing and no-one in his room to hear him cry, to tend to his wounds, to help him ignore the screaming pain of his scar-

No-one, that is, except Dark Shadow. He remembers the darkness engulfing him, coolly and softly, in the form of dark wings. He remembers the voice in his head, telling him that it's going to be all right, that Endeavor is far away and his mother is getting better and that the darkness will always be there for him. He remembers the shadow telling the tortured child that it's all right to cry, it's all right to hide in the darkness for as long as he needed to. It's all right to go back to sleep.

The memory flashes before his eyes in just a second. It only takes him the next second to figure out what to do. "Dark Shadow. To me."

The shadow smiles at him, dreary and ready. "As you command… Todoroki Shouto."

The ice will melt in the next few seconds. Shouto holds out his hands in front of him and braces himself.

The first glint of hot, orange flame is his trigger for his first, and last dark attack. "Dark Ice Spear!"

It happens all at once. Dark Shadow moves forward, shards of ice swirling and spiraling around him like rockets. The demon shoots forward in a massively powerful melding of dark energy and cold, effectively dissipating Tokoyami's fire, like the flame of a candle being snuffed by the wind.

True to the name of his attack, Shouto targets the spear made of ice and Dark Shadow's body at Tokoyami's shoulder, snagging him by the cloth. In the next millisecond, the red-feathered crow hits the opposing wall way out of bounds, groaning in pain.

Shouto raises his left hand, and Dark Shadow instantly retreats. The class looks at him in a breathless haze. Even Aizawa takes a moment to stare at him with a vestige of pride before announcing blankly that Todoroki is the winner of the duel.

"Thank you," he mutters to the demon quietly.

The demon smirks at him. Somehow, he's sure that Dark Shadow knows that he's thanking him for more than just winning the duel. "I did not kill your friend. See to him now."

The shadow then disappears within the confines of his coat. Shouto takes his advice and jogs to where Tokoyami has landed on the other side of the stage.

Midoriya, slightly panicked and ready to assist, is already next to his opponent. Tokoyami's a little out of breath, but he's still able to stand with some assistance. He sees Shouto walking up to him and tries to nod to him without flinching.

"Todoroki-kun, that was _amazing!_ " Midoriya's gushing over him, as per usual. "I can't believe how strong Dark Shadow is in battle! How did you decide to use him like that?"

"... I just felt like I needed to do it at the time," he answers a little uncertainly. He turns his gaze to Tokoyami, who's already standing up to his full height. "I feel like… I need to thank you, Tokoyami. And to apologize, as well, for not giving you a fair fight from the beginning."

Tokoyami nods. The feathers on his head bristle a little as he holds out his hand in front of him.. "I'm joyous that you heeded my calls. Once you've completely embraced the darkness within, the two of us should have a rematch."

Shouto gives a little smile and takes Tokoyami's hand, still warm from producing the flames that woke him up. He has a long way to go to 'embrace the darkness within', as the bird said, but at least he's on his way to do it. "I look forward to it."

Behind them, Aizawa announces the next fight.

* * *

 **AN:** Other writers have created their own AUs of Todoroki having Dark Shadow. Am acknowledging that this isn't my original idea, and that this is simply my take on it :)

In this AU, I imagine Tokoyami being called "Fire Bird" or "Phoenix", with his attacks being named Morningstar or Lightbringer or others referencing the original fallen angel, haha. Despite his new color scheme, he'd still wear as much black as he's able to, since he's Tokoyami.


	7. Day 7 - Family - KoiSei

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 7 - Family - Koisei

 _AN: Please read BNHA: Vigilantes!_

* * *

The first time he's asked the strange question, he isn't even paying attention. Instead, he's staring down at a half-empty bottle of Pocari sweat, trapped in a fierce internal debate whether to drink from it or not.

"Eh? Could you repeat that?" His head snaps up to the person who asked. It is, of course, one of Ingenium's numerous fan girls. She's a young girl, probably fourteen or so, dressed in a middle school uniform. She's already holding onto the mildly uneasy Tensei's left arm as she gives him a meaningful side-eye.

"You heard me, old guy." She wrinkles her nose at the very sight of him. Koichi's rattled and miffed. Don't they teach manners in middle school anymore? "How come you're always with Ingenium-sama? Are you, like, his cousin or manager or something? Are you family?"

He scratches his head in response. "Uh-what you mean, _always_ with Ingenium? I'm not with him all the time… I mean, I have my own things to do, ya know?"

Perhaps the perpetually bored expression he carries irritates her, because he hears her grit her teeth. "Don't play dumb!" She points a finger accusingly at him. "Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you're always tailing Ingenium-sama in the Naruhata Park, like a cockroach! All while he's working hard to get stronger!"

"What the-how do you know our schedule?" And he thought paparazzi were bad; seems like fangirls are a different animal all together. He's a little too flustered to even react negatively to the cockroach remark.

"Also! Every Saturday morning, people have seen you walking out of their house rubbing your tummy as if you've leeched off a huge breakfast from them-"

"Hey, leeching off? That's a little harsh, isn't it?" Although he isn't about to deny that part. Tensei's nice enough to invite him over for brunch every Saturday to eat with his kid brother, Tenya, and since his schedule's super free, he hasn't said no for the past five Saturdays. Tensei's amazing tamagoyaki aside, broke college students gotta do what they can to eat, after all.

"Finally, you're always in the background of the fan photos on r/Ingenium!" She fishes out her smart phone and opens her gallery, where she flips one unauthorized photo after another. "See? Sleepy otaku guy in different All Might Hoodies, always where Ingenium-sama is! It's weird! It's distracting!"

"You know, the fact that you have those photos is pretty weird and cree-" Before he's able to say _creepy,_ he sees Tensei's hand hover above his mouth.

He turns his sleepy stare to him, and he's got an apologetic smile on his face. _Let me handle this,_ he seems to say with his eyes, before he turns to the girl, who's suddenly prim and proper and behaved upon his attention. "It's all right, miss. I know you and the others are just worried about me. You don't have to be, though. Haimawari-kun's… a close friend of mine. I rely on him a lot."

The girl tilts her head curiously. "So… like a sidekick? But, but, I know _all_ of your sidekicks by heart, and Sleepy's definitely not one of them-"

Before Koichi can say anything in offense, Tensei cuts him off with a dignified laugh. "You're right, he's not one of my sidekicks. I still rely on him a lot though."

"So… not family?"

Koichi finds himself staring carefully into Tensei's eyes. There's a beat of silence as the taller man mulls over the answer in his head before saying, "A comrade. Let's leave it at that."

The high school girl looks like she has a hundred more questions, but the fan-service-y smile that Tensei gives her is enough to make her swoon into silence. "A-all right, Ingenium-sama! I'll… I'll keep supporting you no matter what!"

The fan gushes a little bit more before Tensei reminds her that she's probably going to be late for school. She runs off with a final bow and a squeal, leaving the two men alone.

"So… that was awkward. Sorry about that, Koichi-kun."

"Yeah, it was. Told you we should have bolted."

He raises one arrow-head eyebrow at him. "Yeah, but you know my principle on having other people help me. It's not just with people who support me as heroes on Team Idaten. It also extends to the fans who are rooting for me."

He knows it really well. This isn't the first time that fans came up to them to see the famous Turbo Hero up close (with a pretty infamous Vigilante just grumping about in the corner). But does it really have to be the few hours of the day where Koichi has him all to himself?!

He's probably pouting, because Tensei begins laughing at him. He huffs in indignation. "You know… you could have just lied and told her that I'm one of your management guys, or something. A secret half-brother. A cousin twice removed. Might have made things less complicated."

Yeah, he's a little worried now about what that kid will say on Ingenium's fan forums. It only takes small things like people standing regularly next to each other for reporters and crazy fans to make one ludicrous theory after another. Isn't that what happened to Midnight and Present Mic and the really racy rumors being spread in the tabloids? Never mind that Present Mic's actually doing those really racy things with Eraserhead…

Despite this, Tensei just shrugs. "I'm not good at lying. And maybe I'm a little interested in making it complicated for them. Who knows."

The grin on his face is cheesy and playful and really, really, frickin' cute. Koichi actually, physically flinches from its radiance. Before he's able to think about the implications of that really loaded statement, the taller man points to the bottle in his hand. "So are you gonna drink from that, or…?"

Oh, yeah. Back to the more important issue at hand. Koichi stares at the bottle in his hand, the internal conflict rising from the dead and attacking him full force. He's really thirsty, and he really wants a drink, and it's getting less cold as he holds it between his icky sweaty hands.

But Tensei's just… standing there. Feigning innocence, but obviously full of mischief. Staring at his face like he's fully aware that Koichi is fully aware that Tensei drank from that very same bottle just mere minutes ago. Waiting for him to drink, like what the heck, dude, just look away, please?…

Well, whatever. They're both grown-ups, dammit. Maybe Koichi's the only one overthinking things.

He puts on his most unaffected face and takes a swig from the bottle. The liquid's cold and refreshing, yet… it must be his imagination, but the mouth of the bottle is warm, and he feels the warmth tingling his lips even as the cold drink goes down his really parched throat.

Before he knows it, the bottle is empty. He makes a small surprised sound and meets the mildly amused stare of Iida Tensei, who's hovering his taller frame over his shoulder.

"That's what they call an indirect kiss, right?" he tells him, directly at his right ear. Koichi feels all his breath leave his lungs.

He sputters despite himself. He hopes his face isn't turning red when he babbles out something about being grown-ups who shouldn't care about middle school stuff like indirect kisses. Tensei just keeps on laughing at him. With a dashing smile, he gestures with one strong arm towards the vending machines for another bottle to share.

He thinks that just one-half of a Pocari isn't enough to quench his thirst, after all.

* * *

The second time someone asks him the question occurs about five years later, and it's not exactly in the best situation Koichi finds himself in. Then again, best situations rarely has people end up in hospitals.

Right now they're in the Hosu General Hospital, outside of the ICU. Somehow, Tensei's on the other side, hooked to machines with their ominous sounds and intimidating numbers and intimidating lines. There's a Christmas tree's worth of packets of blood and IV drips decorating all four corners of his bed.

He… he isn't awake. He isn't moving much, just a twitch of his arms every now and then when they take his blood for tests, but his legs aren't moving at all. He's… probably fighting for his life. Koichi isn't sure, but he isn't sure his brain understands these things very well.

"Hey, Koichi-kun. You okay? You want to trade shifts? You look like you need to rest."

He hasn't slept since he glided from his apartment in Naruhata to here, and that was… yesterday? Two days ago?

Something warm taps him on the shoulder. He turns his half-lidded gaze to the person next to him. Tsukauchi Makoto's standing next to him with worry furrowing her brow. She's holding out a cup of coffee for him, to which he shakes his head.

"I'm… I'm okay. I'm not that tired. I can stay here for a while longer."

The tall woman pouts at him. "I don't have to touch you to know that you're lying, Koichi-kun."

"I'm not lying, senpai," he says stubbornly. Tiredly. Well, he may be grossly underestimating his exhaustion, but he at least knows that he isn't lying about his wish to stay there a little longer, and he doesn't need her polygraph quirk to know that.

"Well… okay." An extended sigh escapes from her full lips. Since her coffee's rejected, she takes a sip out of it instead. The look on her face is telling of a long night ahead of them. "Guess I'll have to stay here. If you drop dead from exhaustion, someone has to haul your ass to the ER, Hauler."

"... it's not Hauler, it's the Crawler." He says this a lot duller than intended, though. When before he's had to defend his vigilante name with a passion, there's none of that right now. Not when there's an actual hero in the distance who's disconcertingly quiet in his struggle to survive. Not when his illegal ass couldn't do anything about it.

Makoto looks like she's about to say something when she trails off. "Oh. Tenya-kun," she calls out.

"Tsukauchi-san. Haimawari-san." Iida Tenya walks up to them, still clad in his UA uniform. He looks a little better than yesterday, when he rushed to the hospital right after their Sports Festival in a frazzled, anxious mess. He looks even more tired than Koichi, which is saying something, but at least now he's able to stand dry-eyed in front of them.

"Hey, Tenya. You doing okay?" He extends an arm to pat him on the back. In the past five years he's seen him, the younger Iida's grown like a bean sprout on steroids, and already he's taller than Koichi.

Still, he feels the frailty as his hand touches the highschooler's shoulder. The boy in glasses nods at him. "Why aren't you keeping watch inside? We can have two visitors at a time during visiting hours…"

Behind him, Makoto shakes her head. "Only family members are allowed, Tenya-kun. They aren't even allowed to tell us what's going on unless one of your family is here."

It is an unfortunate fact. Hospital policy has kept Koichi from Tensei's bedside for the past 48 hours. But at least their parents vouched for him enough so that they allowed him as far as the window, where he's able to see Tensei's struggle in aching clarity. "Oh." It seems to take some time for Tenya to process this. "W-well now I'm here, so surely…"

He trails off when a nurse in scrubs and protective gear peeks out of the glass door. "Good afternoon. Does the patient in cubicle 9 have any relatives here?"

"I'm here. Iida Tenya, Iida Tensei's younger brother." Robotically, he presents his school ID and bows stiffly to the nurse. "Is _nii-san_ all right? What's happening?"

The nurse glances briefly at his ID and nods. "All right. Dr. Kitamura's inside and wants to give the family an update. Are your parents here?"

"N… no." Mr. and Mrs. Iida had to leave the hospital for a few hours to fix their legal stuff, they said. Perhaps fixing Tensei's assets and properties, in the (not-so-unlikely) even that something… irreversible happens. It's a terrible job for parents to do, but they swallowed all the bitter pills and did it, anyway.

"Hm… you are just a minor, though…" The nurse isn't blind, however. Koichi notices that she notices the downcast look in the younger Iida's eyes. She turns her gaze to Koichi and nods. "How about you, sir? Are you family?"

"Uh… me?"

"Yes. If Iida Tenya-san is accompanied by an adult, it should be okay for the doctors to speak with him."

He isn't sure what to say at first. The nurse is looking at him meaningfully, and he just stands there stammering for a good few seconds, before he hears an exasperated sound from behind him and a hard nudge at his side by a sharp elbow. "Yes, he's one of Iida-san's cousins, as a matter of fact," Makoto says smoothly. "He's close to the family too, so it should be okay to have him there."

The nurse ignores the stunned look on his face, and the wide-eyed look of surprise on Tenya, who isn't very good at lying. Koichi briefly ponders on the irony of the polygraph user being the best at lying among the three of them. "All right. Then if I may please ask the two of you to come in and wear these gowns…"

The nurse doesn't even bother asking for an ID. In the next moment, he's numbly putting on a gown, a mask, and sterile shoes, and is being lead to Tensei's bedside, where a tall doctor is waiting for them.

"Good afternoon, you must be Iida-san's family," the doctor begins. "So… the situation so far about his recovery is as follows…"

Koichi barely understands the words from the doctor's mouth. Granted, he's trying his best to keep away from medical jargon, but the terms fly over his head anyway. Anemia. Spinal cord injury. Paraplegia. Neurogenic shock. The doctor tells them all of the implications in plain language too, but he doesn't understand anything either.

Maybe he doesn't want to understand how serious it is. He begins to regret lying about his relation to the Iida family, because he isn't sure that having the right to hear these scary things as they happen is something his heart can handle.

Still… he sees Tenya stiffen up beside him, knuckles white from the shaking fists at his side, eyes shiny, jaw biting as hard as he's trying to keep it together. He reaches out to pat him on the shoulder again, whatever good that does.

Although he isn't sure that Tenya feels it at first, the boy surprisingly relaxes a little under his touch. So much so that he's able to muster up enough energy to look at the doctor in the eye. "I see. Thank you, Doctor. Haimawari-san, I… I have to call our parents…"

"All right." Tenya bows to everyone and steps out of the ICU in a daze. The doctor bows briefly in Koichi's direction too. An apologetic tone is clear in his voice when he says, "Visiting hours will be over in twenty minutes, sir. The nurses are just nearby, if there's anything you need."

"Th… thank you." The doctor takes his leave then. Koichi only notices that his hands are shaking, too, when he pushes the glass doors to Tensei's cubicle open, and he stumbles inside.

Tensei's the taller one between the two of them. The stronger one, too. The faster one, as long as he has a stock of grapefruit juice nearby. But now Koichi is close enough to see how the lines and the machines and the giant hospital bed just… _dwarfs_ him. It doesn't look right at all.

He wants to touch one of his hands, but all he's able to grasp is the railing. "Tensei… this is Koichi. You said you relied on me a lot, so… yeah. Better remember it. You better make it out of here alive, okay? If you just make it out of this alive, even if… if the doctors are right, and you wouldn't be able to walk anymore… don't worry about it, okay? Even if we won't be able to jog together anymore, it's okay, okay? I'll do the running for the both of us. The cooking. Anything. You could rely on me as long as you want…"

He doesn't care that the nurses see him, or that Makoto's watching him from the window. The tears flow from his eyes, stain his mask, and drip shamelessly on the pale hand against the railing.

"Just don't die, okay? Oh my god, Tensei, please don't die. Please don't die…"

Around them, the machines continue to beep.

* * *

The third and last time someone asks is maybe three or so years later. Koichi isn't sure, because a lot of things happened between then and now. Like, the laws changing, allowing civilians who haven't taken any hero course education to attempt getting Provisional Hero Licenses. And Koichi being the first person to be a Provisional Hero without any formal Hero education. And then moving on to become a pro in less than a year. And then becoming as infamous as Eraserhead as one of those oddball Underground Heroes who don't care about media image. Things like that.

One of those things-that-happened leads eventually to this moment in time, when he's tired from a graveyard shift patrolling Naruhata, beating up the Three Sturm Und Drang Brothers for the umpteenth time, with a bag full of pudding and grapefruit juice. He stumbles in their humble apartment, with all intentions of collapsing on the couch and sleeping until the late afternoon, and finds that their living room is… occupied.

"Oh-Koichi. Welcome home!"

"Y… yeah. I'm back." Koichi stares a little dumbly at the scene, trying to process why Tensei's in the middle of the living room on his wheelchair, face to face with an interviewer and a whole filming crew with lights and cameras and other such things. It's a struggle after such a tiring shift, but he finally figures it out. "Oh-is the documentary interview today? Sorry, I totally forgot… don't mind me."

Tensei told him this maybe a couple of weeks ago, that a group of journalists wants to make a gritty documentary about the hero killer Stain and his effect on Hero Society. Being one of that "It's fine, they're in the middle of setting up. We'll try not to be too noisy."

Koichi bashfully nods and has all intentions of hiding out in their bedroom, but not before reaching out to Tensei to touch him on the shoulder as a form of greeting. Seeing this, the reporter asks, quite bluntly, "So the Crawler lives here too? I didn't know you guys were family…"

The reporter trails off, because in the next second the two men lean their faces closer to each other, lips meeting in the middle for a noiseless kiss. Koichi's a little miffed at the question, but also smug as hell when he looks at the crew who are obviously caught off guard by their quiet and blunt display of affection.

(Never mind that after all these years, small things like this still makes the younger man's heart beat like crazy.)

"Family." Tensei repeats, a calm smile on his face. "I suppose you could say that."

He reaches out to touch Koichi's hand. Their rings make brief contact when he squeezes it slightly before letting go.

It's good. It feels good now that he has a good, honest answer to that question, after all this time. "Okay. I'll… see you later, Tensei," he mumbles quietly before escaping to the bedroom. It's been six whole months since they're officially family, but thinking about it still makes his cheeks blush and makes his heart flutter.

He closes the door behind him and falls on the bed. _Their bed,_ he remembers fondly. Warm sunlight drifts from the open window as he falls into a peaceful, quiet slumber.

* * *

 **AN:** As embarrassing as it is to admit, this pairing is the reason why I joined this challenge in the first place T_T I keep re-reading their chapter and feeling the sheer injustice of the lack of content. the world needs more Koisei, pls and thank you.


	8. Day 8 - Soulmates - Kirichako

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 8 - Soulmates - KiriChako

* * *

"Okay… I think this time I got it, Kiri!"

Kirishima Eijiro has one hand cradling his chin as he sits on the floor across of Uraraka Ochako, a deck of cards, and a weird little layout she probably invented on the fly. There's a mischievous glint in her determined gaze as she flips through the instruction book in front of her face.

The redhead chortles a little. "Okay, Miss Fortune Teller. Lay it on me."

Uraraka points to one of the cards on the spread. "This one!" The card is labeled 'Strength,' and on it, a lady is opening the mouth of a lion. "This means that you're definitely, definitely going to be the manliest hero ever in the entire history!"

"Whoa? You're kidding!"

"I'm not kidding! See? And this one," she points to a card called the Tower. It's scary-looking, with a bolt of lightning striking the very top, and two unlucky guys jumping to their deaths in the rocks below. "This means, um… you're going to beat up a lot of unmanly villains and have a really successful career! And the thunderbolt means that… you're probably gonna team up with Kaminari-kun a lot!"

"Well that just sounds like a disaster." He says this jokingly, because he's worked with Kaminari before, and so far the biggest disaster is Bakugou failing the Provisional License Exams during their first try. But who knows what might happen when you're with Kaminari and his devil-may-care attitude.

"You're mean," Uraraka says with a laugh. She places the book down and takes everything together in her chubby little hands and shuffles them clumsily. "Anyways, that's it for that reading! Come on, I'm on fire, Kiri, ask another one!"

"They're about to start movie night downstairs, you know…"

The girl scoffs. "They're watching the live action Rurouni Kenshin for, like, the hundredth time! Can't the Bakusquad pick something else for movie night?"

Kirishima's jaw drops in mock offense. "Hey. Don't say that about Kenshin! He's the manliest samurai there is!"

Maybe he looks a little too offended and defensive when he says it, because she's puffing out her cheeks and guffawing out loud the next moment. "Okay, okay. Promise, this is the last one, then we'll go join the rest of them. Okay?"

A smile graces that pretty pink mouth, those round cheeks. Like Kirishima could say no to a sight like that.

Uraraka's blindingly cute when she's excited, so Kirishima feels blessed to find that there are many things that get her excited. One of them is the new tarot deck that she bought yesterday, when she went malling with Mina. Kirishima can't stop his silly shark teeth from showing as he watches her pink cheeks glow as she straightens out the deck in front of her.

"Okay. Ready! I know you have lots of burning questions for me, the Great Seer Madame Ochako, so lay it on me, Kiri!"

Kirishima hums and dramatically furrows his brow, dramatically rubs the bottom of his chin with one of his hands. "I wonder what really hard, really specific thing I can ask the Great Manly Seer Madame Ochako to specifically test her abilities?"

"Harrumph! Doubting my skills? The Great Seer can learn how to use this deck for other things too, you know! Spells and curses and all that!"

She puffs her cheeks in mock annoyance. It looks so darn cute that if he weren't already spellbound by her long ago, he certainly would have been then. "All right, all right, Great Seer, here's a question for you-"

He leans his head forward and trains his red eyes on her chocolate-brown ones. He notices her cheeks getting a little pinker with the shortening of the distance, but doesn't comment on it. At least, not yet. "Can you tell me who my soulmate is?"

"O-oh! Soulmates, huh? Very good question, hm." She clears her throat a little in a little attempt at recovery and pulls out one card.

"This is… the Queen of Cups," she says, as she places the card in front of Kirishima. "So… your soulmate's someone who knows how to calm you down… oh, and also, she's crazy creative! And I mean crazy! One brilliant idea after another! She must be really smart! And she's really intuitive, like she can see the future and stuff!"

"You don't say!" He leans forward a little more, pretends to look at the card seriously before directing his gaze right back at Uraraka and her intoxicating brown eyes and pink cheeks.

She pulls out another card. "The Empress - oh, this is a good one, Kiri, it means that she'll really take care of you! She'll be the queen to your king! If you meet her, there's a 99% chance that you'll rule the world!"

"Sounds cool! Can't wait to meet her." He moves forward a little more, close enough to smell the strawberry scent of her shampoo. Funnily enough, she doesn't notice, and she pulls out the next card.

"Oh… this is a another good one." A big smile is on her face as she places the Strength card back on the spread. "This means that your soulmate is crazy strong. Like, so strong you could probably spend alternate days lifting each other in the gym, and…"

Even the way she trails off, with her mouth open and her eyes widening a fraction and her small brown eyebrows raising, is cute. She notices a little too late that Kirishima's face is closer than it ever was, so close that his nose is almost touching the skin of her cheek.

"Hm? Great Seer-san? Is my reading done?" Kirishima asks her innocently. His voice is light and teasing. He exhales softly, and he practically sees the point of contact of his breath on her skin by the way goosebumps rise over the bare shoulders exposed by her tank-top. "Or… are you seeing stuff that isn't in the cards…?"

Uraraka's practically a cherry tomato with that sliver of distance between them, but she tries to keep up the fortune teller facade anyway. "W… well, I _am_ obliged to finish the reading… I was just about to tell you whether… you've met this soulmate of yours already, and…"

Quietly, Kirishima finishes her sentence for her by closing the gap between them. His lips land gently on her soft ones. He's able to taste the mochi they ate together earlier. He brings one of his roughened hands up to her face and holds her chin, the skin beneath so soft, so different from his own. In response, he feels pink-padded fingertips hold him carefully on the shoulder, all of them making contact with his skin except for the last one.

The kiss lasts for a good, sweet moment before they break apart. He's treated to the sight of her breathless and warm and radiant, as she returns his cheesy grin back at him.

"So… interested in knowing who your soulmate is?" she asks him after a sharp inhale. One of her small hands rub the side of his cheek and run through the red spikes of his hair. He feels a tingle where she's touched him, feels his heart beat a little faster, feels his _soul_ glow brighter, as hers come in closer to his.

"Nah. We already know the answer to that, anyway."

They lean in for another kiss, and another, and another, cards forgotten and movie night abandoned. Time passes by slowly between them in a blissful haze.

* * *

 **AN:** Okay... so my fav is Kacchako but now there's a new contender to my OTP lololol I enjoyed this a little too much~


	9. Day 9 - Warmth - InaTodo

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 9 - Warmth - InaTodo

* * *

"Ha-choo!"

Yoarashi Inasa pauses in the middle of an impassioned speech about the miracle of childbirth he'd happened to witness first-hand in the form of a cat giving birth in the shed of his house to stare at Todoroki Shouto in mild shock. "TODOROKI! THAT WAS A LOUD SNEEZE!"

Shouto sniffles as blankly as he can and momentarily fumbles for the handkerchief he keeps in his back pocket. Before he's able to put it to his nose, however, Yoarashi already has his huge hand loaded with pulls of tissues, and he's already shoving it not-so-gently into the smaller boy's face.

He grunts in mild annoyance. He knows the overenthusiastic boy means well, but one of these days, Shouto is sure that the large boy'll break a bone or two. He almost broke his nose just then, for example. He shoots him a mildly annoyed glare, which has no effect at all on the boy's excessive enthusiasm.

Nevertheless, he feels his nose itch, and so he takes the tissues hurriedly. He sneezes again, three times in succession, an another two after that. By the end of it, a row of fire escapes from his left nostril. It singes the tissues and just misses the gawking Yoarashi, who manages to dodge in time.

Yoarashi directs his gaze at the trail of smoke that the fire just left in the air. "I KNOW YOU HAVE JUST SNEEZED BUT I HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY."

The smaller boy ices the dirty crumple of tissues in his hand and throws it in a nearby dustbin. "Yeah?"

"YOU SNEEZE LIKE A KITTEN."

"... so they tell me." He can't deny it even if he wanted to.

"FURTHERMORE, I THINK YOU MIGHT BE SICK. A COLD MOST LIKELY."

Shouto is already feeling breathless, both from the effort of sneezing his brains out and from the beginning congestion in his nose. "… you don't say."

"YES I DO SAY." Blissfully oblivious to his sarcasm, as usual, Yoarashi places one of his giant hand over Shouto's forehead. It's so big, the palm covers over half of the smaller boy's face. "YOUR FOREHEAD IS WARM. ALSO, YOUR VOICE IS BEGINNING TO SOUND HOARSE. ALSO, YOU'RE SHIVERING. THOSE ARE CONVINCING SIGNS OF A FLU."

He hasn't even noticed that he was beginning to shake against the chill of the fall air until Yoarashi shouted it in his face. Great. Now he's painfully aware of the warmth rising to his face and his sudden inability to control his internal temperature. He shrinks himself in his scarf and uniform blazer, stuffs his ungloved hands into his pockets. "You might be right." It isn't warm enough.

He feels Yoarashi's arm go behind him. He blinks curiously as a heavy fabric weighs around his shoulders, encasing him in warmth.

To say that the larger boy's Shiketsu uniform blazer is large is an understatement. It's so gigantic he feels like he's drowning in it. To Shouto, this feels like the time when he was a very small first grader and he snuck into Natsuo's closet to wear his _gakuran_ to feel like a proper grown-up, only to find out that he's a small boy who only succeeded in looking ridiculous and smaller than he already was.

Except, this one is nicer, because even though he looks like a kid in a giant's jacket, it's so, so warm. Yoarashi boasts so much about having a fired-up outlook in life, and perhaps the best evidence of it is the amount of body warmth that's now embracing Shouto all over.

(Not to mention the smell. Like sandalwood and a musky something or the other that's probably Yoarashi's natural scent. Though the smaller boy'll never admit that it smells _nice_ [at least, not out loud, not while his nose is horribly congested], the feeling of being surrounded by this scent causes a blush to form on his already flushed skin.)

Soon, Shouto feels the chill cut in half. He stops shivering.

"IS MY BLAZER WARM ENOUGH FOR YOU, TODOROKI?"

"Yes, it's good. Thanks."

"IF IT'S NOT WARM ENOUGH, I CAN RUN TO THE STORE TO BUY YOU FURS. SYNTHETIC FURS. OR I COULD WEAVE SOMETHING FROM THE PLANTS AROUND HERE. AND BEFORE YOU ASK, YES, I KNOW HOW TO WEAVE CLOTHES OUT OF PLANTS. THEY TRAIN US IN SHIKETSU HIGH TO SURVIVE IN HARSH ENVIRONMENTS AND DESERTED SITUATIONS-"

"No… please leave the plants alone." Shouto sighs, and not just because he feels the flu eating away his energy. "I think I just need to get back to the dorms… sorry I can't hang out with you for longer, Yoarashi."

"IT'S NO PROBLEM. NO-ONE LIKES GETTING SICK. I THINK YOU SHOULD GO HOME AS SOON AS YOU CAN, TOO. YOU CAN RETURN MY BLAZER TOMORROW. I HAVE TEN EXTRA ONES IN MY CLOSET."

Even if he says that, Yoarashi's still standing in his way like a giant hunk of rock. Even when Shouto stares at him without hiding his annoyance at all, the guy just isn't moving. Before he is able to take more than a few steps to go around the large man, he suddenly feels the ground beneath him disappear.

Yoarashi has succeeded in lifting him up by the waist, letting him settle on one strong arm. Shouto's flustered, not only by the way he's hoisted up like he weighed as much as a tiny kitten (… dammit), but also because for the first time he's looking at the taller man above his head.

 _Is this what it's like to be gigantic? It's not a bad view,_ he thinks blankly as he stares at the top of his trademark Shiketsu High hat. "What are you doing?"

"TAKING YOU TO THE UA DORMS. IT WILL BE FASTER THIS WAY."

"It's fine. I don't need help walking," he says stiffly, thinking about the safest way to climb down this tree-of-a-man. Sensing his movement, Yoarashi just holds on to him tighter.

"OH WE'RE NOT WALKING. HOLD ON TIGHT, TODOROKI."

Before Shouto could ask what he means by that, he feels the beginnings of a tornado swooshing around them. He doesn't need to be told twice to hold on tight.

Like a hungry lion leaping after a wild gazelle in the Serengeti, Yoarashi leaps off the ground, until they're five, ten, fifteen feet in the air. The sound of the wind rushing past his ears is catastrophic, but Shouto sees the fine control that Yoarashi uses to keep them afloat. The city below them begins to shrink. He doesn't have time to worry about how he's actually breaking rules by using his quirk in public, how cold it is up in the air, or how people on the streets are pointing to them in awe before he realizes that they're already landing in front of the Heights Alliance complexes.

"THERE WE GO! CAREFUL NOW!" Yoarashi bends over considerably to let Shouto down. The smaller boy tries not to think of how daft he must have looked, with his wind-swept hair and giant jacket and wobbly legs and stuffy nose and beet-red face as he attempts to stand on his own. "SEE? WE'RE HERE IN NO TIME."

"Y… yeah…" Shouto wraps the other boy's blazer tighter around him semi-consciously. "Thanks. But don't ever do that again."

"NOTED! BUT I'M TOTALLY DOING IT AGAIN." Yoarashi does a funny salute. "WELL THEN, I AM GOING TO MY OWN HOUSE NOW. TAKE CARE, TODOROKI! STAY WARM!"

Soon, the giant boy is running off using giant strides (no public use of his quirk this time, thankfully), his boisterous laughter fading off in the distance. Shouto watches this with the flush of fever and something else before he turns to go up to his warm, Japanese-style room to sleep the sickness off.

* * *

 **AN:**... the size difference... T_T I think given the chance Inasa would carry Shouto everywhere all the time


	10. Day 10 - Trust - MinaTooru

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 10 - Trust - MinaTooru

* * *

"Tooru-chan? Are you there?"

"Yup! I'm ready when you are, Mina-chan!"

Mina falters a bit as she stands on the edge of a rocky cliff. Around them, their classmates are leaping off backwards in wild abandon. She hears Kaminari whooping beside her as he jumps off without any seeming regard of his bodily integrity.

Below, she peeks at the sight of Shouji catching the electric boy in his many arms without much trouble. Beside their tallest classmate, she sees the floating pair of gloves waiting for her to leap.

This is an odd exercise, but she supposed that it's good training to know how to catch people falling off of high places. Still, Tooru's a few centimeters shorter than her, and she isn't entirely sure if the girl can handle her weight. Not saying that it's a bad idea, but...

"Mina-chaaaaan? Come onnn, juuuump~ I'll catch youuu~" Tooru's boots are stepping side-to-side excitedly as she sings out to Mina. It's really cute, but doesn't take the worry of leaping into thin air off.

"Okay! Sorry, Tooru-chan, gimme another second!"

"'kay~" The girl doesn't stop holding out her gloves in front of her. Mina peeks at her again as she attempts to build her courage. There's something so earnest and utterly _adorable_ about the way the invisible girl is standing there, ready to catch her in her arms, that the pink girl couldn't help but smile.

Yeah, she can totally do this. She trusts Tooru. She won't let her get hurt.

Mina takes a deep breath and shakes off her hands, now covered in acidic sweat. Gracefully, she crosses both arms over her chest, holds her breath, and lets herself drop backwards.

"Gotcha!" She's barely jarred when she lands in Tooru's surprisingly strong arms. Mina feels her breath returning to her as she grasps the smaller girl's naked shoulder and feels all the impressive bulk of her deltoid.

Next thing she knows, the girl is carrying her bridal style and jumping in place excitedly. "Yay! We did it! We did it!" To the others around them, it looks like Mina's floating, and she smiles at how really cool that might look like.

"Yeah girl we did it! Now put me down!" Mina laughs at the enthusiastic girl, who lets her down in the next second. "Now get up that cliff and jump on me, woman!"

"You got it! I trust you, Mina-chan!" The floating gloves run up the cliff and get into position.

After the pink girl calls out to her to tell her that she's ready, it only takes a second for Tooru to leap right into Mina's arms, where she belongs.

* * *

 **AN:** The shortest and sweetest chapter yet :) hope I did my girls justice!


	11. Day 11 - Laughter - TokoKami

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Chapter 11 - Laughter - TokoKami

 _AN: highly recommended to listen to Tenacious D's Master Exploder as you read._

* * *

Tokoyami stares at the computer screen with a deep sense of foreboding as Kaminari looks at him with that crazy, bean-eyed look on his face. "Eh? Eh? Whaddya think of this one, Tokoyami? Think we can get away with a cover of this mind-blowing masterpiece?"

The electric blonde just showed him a rather old video of the eccentric and ageing rock star, Present Mic, on YouTube, back in his early days performing in small-time punk clubs. It consists of a lot of screaming, theatrics, tight pants and deep V-necks, and literal blowing up of electronics when the singer accidentally activates his quirk a number of times during the song. It's perfectly balanced by the presence of the rock star's rocking guitarist, one Aizawa Shouta, who grimly provides back-up in the form of tasty licks and surprisingly well-modulated backing vocals.

"Demoniacal," quoth the raven, putting one of his hands thoughtfully under his chin. "Risky. Little chance of reward to be gained should we pursue this madness."

There might be a thin line of drool at the end of Kaminari's mouth as he waits for Tokoyami's final response. The dark-feathered boy sighs.

"Fine. Let's do it." It's utterly impossible to say no to Kaminari Denki's face, dopey or not. The blonde whoops in victory.

"Yeah boiii! We are gonna rock their fuckin' socks off!" He excitedly plays a mindless pentatonic on his canary-yellow Stratocaster with a manic grin on his face. He then peers up at Tokoyami, his eyelashes fluttering cutely. "I love you so much bro! Do you love me too?"

Tokoyami keeps a straight face as he takes his sweet time setting up his own guitar. After a moment of silence, Kaminari still hasn't stopped fluttering his eyelashes at him. He sighs deeply again.

"Yes," he relents with a persistent dark aura surrounding him. "I love you too, brother of mine."

That's enough for Kaminari to break the silence with another ear-piercing whoop. He's really serious about channeling Mic-sensei, isn't he. "Let's do this, bro! Tokacious Denki (TokoDen for short), at your eargasming service!"

* * *

Soon, they're at the edge of the stage of the large auditorium of the chateau belonging to the prominent keyboardist and mechanical engineering major, Yaoyorozu Momo. In the audience next to her are the explosive drummer/biology major, pre-med track student Bakugou Katsuki; band manager/psychology major Shinsou Hitoshi; and the woman they have to impress the most, bassist/vocalist/composer/band leader/music business major, Jirou Kyouka.

At the center of the stage is Kirishima Eijirou, sports sciences major, and one of their closest bros in UA University who wanted to be their hype-man and roadie. Everyone is looking curiously at the redhead as he clears his throat and begins his monologue.

"So… these guys told me not to read this," Kirishima says, waving a little card with his messy scrawl over it, "But, uh… dammit! I'll read it anyway! Because I wrote it! And it's true!"

The band and their manager stares up at the redhead dumbly as he takes out the card. His voice rings out of his mouth and all over the auditorium, "I fucking love this band! They are the best band in ever… period!"

The bird sees Bakugou scoff loudly from his seat. Kirishima is undeterred and doesn't stop shouting. "Ladies and Gentlemen… Tokacious Denki!"

Kirishima then bows with his arms out and side-steps his way off the stage. Kaminari, clad in lots of shiny black leather, confidently ambles up to the microphone, yellow Strat swinging around his scrawny body, with Tokoyami trailing grimly behind him.

"... whey," the blonde says coolly, making Jirou Kyouka's eyebrows raise, "This song is a cover of EraserMic's magnum opus called… Master Exploder."

There's barely a quiet interval before Kaminari begins strumming out the first chords of the song. Tokoyami feels a little proud of his bandmate for overcoming his fears over barre chords. Soon, he's joining him by playing the opening lead with his own guitar. Kaminari begins to sing:

"aaaaaah-aaaaah-aaaaaah-aaahahahahahahahahahah-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

… well, not really singing, per se, but screaming. The dark bird sees the flustered look on the band members' faces at the heights that Kaminari's voice reach. If Tokoyami closed his eyes and listened, he'd be convinced that the person screaming next to him is actually Present Mic.

He certainly has the theatrics down, at least.

The blonde dramatically kicks down the mic stand after he screams with all of his might, and moves on to sing, "I DO NOT NEED!"

"He does not need."

"A MICROPHONE!"

"A microphone."

"MY VOICE IS FUCKING!"

"Fuckin'."

"POWERFUUUUUUUL!" Kaminari inhales loudly as he continues strumming madly on his guitar. "AAAAAAAAAH YEAH!"

Tokoyami plays the next notes with ease, his fingers flying over the fretboard of his guitar. He sees Yaoyorozu discreetly appraising his riff with a small smile on her face.

As they rehearsed before, this is the part where Kirishima comes running up to the stage to stand next to Kaminari and dramatically stare him down as the blonde continues to scream, "aaa-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The voice is so shrill, it pierces through everyone like a shockwave. Kirishima flails about like his brain has exploded and pretends to drop dead on the stage.

"Sorry!" Kaminari says, not looking sorry at all. He directs his manic grin back to the flustered audience and continues the song. "I DID NOT MEAN-"

"He did not mean."

"-TO BLOW YOUR MIND!"

"To blow your mind," Tokoyami whispers to the microphone, earning him an interested stare from the manager Shinsou.

"BUT THAT SHIT HAPPENS TO ME, all the tiiiime!"

They do a rather complex guitar duel right there and then. He sees all the band members watch them intently. Jirou's trademark earjacks are twitching. She seems to be hiding her mouth behind her hands, which formed a tent in front of her face. He knows that they're judging the two of them very, very seriously.

"Now take a look!"

"Take a look,"

"Tell me what do you see?"

"What do you see?"

"We got the pick… of DESTINYYYYYY! AAAAAAAAAAAH…. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

They shred the last few notes of the song in unison, heads bobbing violently in sync. By the end of it, Tokoyami's breathless. He can only imagine how Kaminari must feel, having spent the last three minutes screeching like a banshee, but he's got his arms out and ready to take in the praise.

"..."

A stunned silence envelopes the auditorium. Kirishima, who isn't actually dead, scrambles up to his feet, stands next to Kaminari, and joins him in staring at the silent judges nervously.

It's Bakugou who breaks the silence first. "Emo bird-head's okay. Shitty Hair roadie's okay. Hard pass on Pikachu."

"Noooo!" Kaminari flails dramatically onstage and falls to his knees. "Y-you can't do that! TokoDenShima is a package deal!"

"I can do whatever the fuck I want, charger-fucker!" the drummer yells, with a juicy expletive or two. "I couldn't hear myself thinking with all the screaming!"

"No offense, Bakugou, but you do a lot of screaming yourself. Haven't had a quiet thought since you got me on board as manager," Shinsou deadpans, earning him his own juicy expletives. As if to drive his point home further, he rubs the space between his eyes and trains his haven't-slept-in-a-month, dead-inside stare up the trio on the stage. "Anyway… you certainly got Present Mic's yowling accurately, except for the part where he sets the mic on fire by screaming… to which I'm grateful for, by the way. Please don't ruin our equipment."

"You got it, you sexy sleepy manager, you," Kaminari says, with two finger-guns pointing his way. He's blatantly ignored by the purple-haired guy, much to Tokoyami's relief.

Shinsou turns to the girls seated behind him and asks, "What do you think, MomoJirou?"

Yaoyorozu hums for a few seconds before nodding uneasily. "The rascals have… spirit, I guess? I think I can play something that's compatible with their level of skill, so... I'm okay with whatever Kyouka has to say."

And so, Kaminari, Tokoyami, and Kirishima turn their hopeful gazes to the fearless band leader, Jirou Kyouka. For a few tense seconds, the girl's triangular eyes appraise them seriously, ominously even, as her fingers tighten in front of her covered mouth.

The tense silence is broken seconds later by pure, unrestrained, unfiltered cackling.

Tokoyami's a little taken aback by how the bassist is suddenly _howling_ with laughter. Her earjacks wave joyously in the air in front of her as she tilts her head backwards and forwards and even slaps her knees at one point in an attempt to get all the pent-up energy out. She keeps at it for a good solid minute or two before she calms down, grasping at her stomach desperately and struggling to look at Kaminari in the eye.

"S-sorry-it's just that-you got that real, stupid Jamming-Whey look in your eyes when you're screaming-"

"... Whey?" Kaminari repeats with that distinct empty look on his face. Tokoyami suddenly knows what Jirou means, and before he knows it, he's chortling helplessly on the side, too.

And just like that, the auditorium is suddenly filled with laughter. Kirishima starts to guffaw and has to bend down on his knees just to steady himself. Yaoyorozu also begins to laugh heartily in the most lady-like way Tokoyami's ever seen on a human being. Shinsou's chuckling darkly like everything is a dark joke, but the tired look in his eyes is gone at least. Even Bakugou gives in and begins to howl like a madman from his spot on the auditorium.

In the midst of it, Kaminari's just going, "Whey? Wheyyy?" in confusion. The laughter dies down eventually, and Jirou gets enough breaths in her lungs to start speaking properly again.

"What the fuck. You guys are in."

There's a moment of stunned silence among the three. Jirou just shrugs and says, "But I'm not letting you near the microphone, Jamming Whey. Stick to the guitars."

"Yeahhhh boiii!" Kirishima cheers. In the next second, he's lifting the two mildly shocked guitarists off their feet with his brawny arms. "You guys, we did it! The six of us, we're gonna be the greatest band in the world, aw yeah!"

"Wheeeyyy!" Kaminari cheers, earning him another round of laughter from the band leader. He turns his dopey victory smile to Tokoyami and gives a thumbs up. "Kilt it! Love you, bro!"

Tokoyami sighs darkly as Kirishima continues to spin them round and round. He barely hears Shinsou dully welcoming them to the A-Band from below.

"Love you too, brother of mine."

And thus begins their maddening, dreadful journey to the top, as the greatest band in the world.

* * *

 **AN:** Bonus artwork for this story to be found on my tumblr (junionigiri)  
Haha sorry about the crack but I would really suffer for this band~~ if I had a better attention span I'd make a longer story out of this!


	12. Day 12 - Winter - TsuShouji

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 12 - Winter - TsuShouji

 _AN: Also features background AoChako vs IiDeku;; Vive la revolution!_

* * *

Tsuyu stares at the trees and hills outside the window of the ski lodge privately owned by the Yaoyorozu family. The students are finally allowed one weekend of their winter break to step out of school, provided that they're supervised by a pro-hero member of the faculty. Everyone voted to go to the ski lodge, and now everyone is having fun out in the snow.

Well… everyone except Tsuyu-chan. Being cold-blooded doesn't always have a lot of perks. Days like these she spent at home with her family under the kotatsu. Unless they're wearing multiple layers of very expensive thermal wear, they wouldn't even make it out to their front yard without slipping into a peaceful coma.

Nevertheless, she doesn't want to keep anybody else from having fun. She'd told everyone else to go play and to not worry about her. So there she sits, in front of the blazing fire of the hearth, with a cup of hot chocolate and no-one to talk to.

She watches as Ochako-chan and Aoyama-chan throw snowballs above Iida's head as he makes a perfectly square snowman. She thinks that it'd be good to take a video of it and begins grope at the side of the couch when she feels the cushions give at the space next to her.

" _Ribbit?_ Oh, it's Shouji-chan."

Their tallest classmate, Shouji Mezo, regards her curiously. "Asui-san? You aren't joining everyone else outside?"

"No… I might not keep awake if I go out, _ribbit._ " Tsuyu croaks and looks at him just as questioningly. He's clad head-to-toe in winter wear, but the sleeves from all layers have been cut, leaving his multi-arms bare. She supposed that his quirk required clothing that left room for his arms to grow as he needs them to, but all in all it's an odd look. She isn't sure if he's ready to go outside or not.

"Oh… that's unfortunate." Shouji says this with genuine concern. "I was just on my way out to join the rest of them… it seems that they're having a race of some sorts outside."

"That sounds like fun." She couldn't help the wistful little croak that escapes her throat. "You should go and join them, Shouji-chan. Don't worry about me, ribbit."

"I feel bad about leaving you here, Asui-san…"

"No, I promise I'm fine," the frog-girl insists with the best smile she can muster. "And please, call me Tsuyu-chan, _ribbit._ "

The tall boy doesn't move though. One of his hands is rubbing his chin thoughtfully, while another one is rubbing the back of his neck. Two arms are crossed in front of him pensively. It's the very picture of thoughtfulness, Tsuyu thinks.

"Well… I truly don't want to leave you alone here," Shouji repeats. He stands up to his full height, though, his profile casting a shadow that looms over Tsuyu. There's suddenly a bright look in his eyes, something that she's never seen before in his usually serious gaze.

"So I was wondering… if you'd indulge me in an idea I had just now."

* * *

Ochako and Aoyama are in the middle of hiding from an affronted and snow-covered Iida when Tsuyu comes out to meet them. "Oh, it's Tsuyu-chan and Shouji-kun! _Finalement!_ " Aoyama greets with a flamboyant wave. "Join us in a long-overdue _coup d'etat_ to bring our tyrannical president down! _Vive la révolution!_ "

"End the Square-o-cracy! _Vive la résistance!_ " Ochako cries, until she takes a good look at her classmates. Snowballs and the revolution momentarily forgotten, she gapes at them and shifts to a particularly mischievous grin as she takes note of their proximity. "Oh my gosh! You two are soooo cute!"

" _Ribbit,"_ Tsuyu croaks in mild embarrassment, as she looks up at Shouji. "Are you sure this is okay, Shouji-chan? You won't be able to race with everyone…"

She's enclosed in an improvised sling made of the tall boy's arms, so that she's hanging like a cocoon in front of his chest with just her bonnet-clad head exposed to the cold air. While this isn't the first time that he'd carried her like this-the Sports Festival and the Provisional License Exam come embarrassingly in mind-this time, it's much snugger and she's much closer to the boy. She only hopes that he hasn't noticed how red her face is.

"I'm okay. It's enough for me to see you having fun in the snow, Asui… I mean, Tsuyu-chan."

She knows that she's the one who insisted on being called by her first name, but now she's blushing so hard she's sure that anyone would notice. Ochako, in particular, is grinning at her so wide it's bordering on shit-eating, but before she's able to get a teasing word out, a snowball hits her right in the head.

"Take that, rapscallions! Capture the rebels!" cries a method-acting Iida, one stiff hand swooshing towards Aoyama and Ochako. Midoriya is behind him with his own pack of snowballs. "Attack them, my general! Leave the civilians unharmed!"

"Okay! Shouji-kun, Asu… um, Tsuyu-chan, watch out!" Midoriya yells, as he throws five snowballs in succession.

Snowballs start to fire from both sides, accentuated by shrieks of laughter. She isn't playing with them, but finally seeing the beautiful snow up close is more than what she ever wished for.

Moments later, when Shouji walks them away from the increasingly violent, snowy _coup d'etat,_ Tsuyu is greeted by another marvelous sight.

Gentle snowflakes begin to drift from the sky. She gasps a little as one of them floats close to her eyes, and she's able to see the fractals in striking clarity. "This is amazing, Shouji-chan! I've never seen snow fall so up close, _ribbit!_ "

He pats her head fondly and says, "I'm glad, Tsuyu-chan. It's nice to see you smiling again."

Tsuyu knows that it's cold, but she feels like melting. She croaks contentedly and curls herself closer to Shouji.

* * *

 **AN:** I'm getting so much practice writing fluff;;  
Shouji - one of my fav lorge bfs, gives best hugs! needed to write this!


	13. Day 13 - Sunrise, Sunset - SeroMina

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 13 - Sunrise/Sunset - SeroMina

Sero Hanta wipes his forehead free of sweat and stares at his handiwork in front of him. The tent he'd spent more than an hour setting up is a little lopsided, but at least now it's upright. At least now he's sure that a passing wind won't topple it over, like in the last three attempts he made. And even though it doesn't look completely symmetrical, he's sure that it's large enough inside to fit two people…

Although, it might be a snug fit. Well, the snugger the better, in this case. His camping-mate gives an impressed whistle next to him and pats him on the back. "Wow, it's actually not as terrible as I thought it was gonna be!"

Sero huffs. "Well, at least it looks like a tent now. Not like a blanket, when you tried to help."

"Yep! It looks like we can survive in the wilderness all on our own after all, Sero!" Ashido Mina says this coolly, but her black eyes shine with excitement. She bends over to drop the stack of firewood next to her. "Now let's get the fire started!"

Though they're big on pretending to know what to do, as expected, the couple soon has to open a Wikihow article on how to start a campfire without burning the place down to the ground. Sero's a little bewildered at how hard starting fires really is for two people that don't really have any good camping know-how. He panics a little, because it's already getting colder, and he catches Ashido blow on her hands once or twice.

(Paradoxically though, he feels like he's burning up. Especially when his splintered hands brushes hers once or twice. Or thrice. Completely by accident, of course.)

Thankfully, even though it takes them another solid hour or two to figure it out, they eventually have a fire going. Just in time too-the sky's already painted in deep oranges and purples, and Sero is barely able to see the round outline of the sun disappear behind the shadows of the trees.

"Aw, we missed the sunset," he hears the pink-haired girl whine behind him. "Maybe we should have picked a spot closer to the lookout point!"

She's squatting on the ground, all tuckered out from the day's hike through the forest. Sero gives her and her toned legs an appreciative look, before he has the good sense to go back to his usual teasing self. "It's fine. You wouldn't have made the hike, anyways. The aunties who hike here would give you a run for their money."

She casts him an annoyed glance. "Whatever, you hipster. Just for that, I'm not sharing my food with you. Stick to your celery sticks and crappy trailmix for dinner."

"Heyyy, don't be like that!" he whines. When she keeps up the annoyed pout, he starts apologizing dramatically. "Fine, fine, you're better than those aunties! And if you're tired, I'll carry you all the way up the mountain, all right? Just _please_ feed me dinner…"

They're just teasing each other, of course, but the prospect of Sero not eating Ashido's special curry makes his empty stomach grumble in protest. Curry is curry, but among them she's the only one who knew how to make orange chicken curry, and there's something special about how the pink girl makes it. Heck, even Bakugou gave it props that one time, and Ashido rightfully hasn't let him live it down. Maybe it's 'cause she's good at acids that she's good at cooking with citrus.

"Humph," she maintains, with her arms crossed over her shoulder. "Can you really do it? Carry me up and down the mountains? I'm not sure you can carry me, since I'm so out of shape and so _heavy_ -"

He doesn't give her time to finish her sentence. Soon he lifts her up in his arms and throws her over his shoulder. She shrieks, and then laughs uncontrollably as he playfully threatens to throw her off a cliff.

"Fine, fine, Tape-Boy, put me down already!" She's still giggling as she taps his shoulder. "Man, Sero, you're like a tree. I'm getting vertigo up here!"

"What're you talking about? Raccoons aren't supposed to get vertigo from climbing trees," he sneers, giving her one last spin that makes her squeal.

"Shut up! I'm serious, tall-boy, put me down…"

Sero puts her down, and then sees her point. Even with the added height of her puffy hair and horns, she only comes up to slightly below his chin. Her eyes are on the level of his collar bones, and he feels her breath over the neck of his shirt as she looks up at him.

"So," she says, suddenly a little timid, suddenly a little pinker than she usually is. "I'll… get started on dinner?"

Only then does the tall boy notice that he's still holding on to the shorter girl's waist. He lets go of her in an instant and feels himself blush like _crazy_ , like he's caught groping someone on the train. She laughs at him, "Getting a little touchy, Han-chan? You are such a cherry boy!"

"Han-chan…?!"

Still, even with her taunt, she turns just as red when he does. Both are suddenly unable to fight the self-consciousness and other-consciousness that fall between them. Sero notices her turn away and escape to where the fire is, presumably before he notices anything.

He sighs. Retorts usually come so easy for him, but it's so easy for him to lose all the words when it comes to Ashido Mina.

And lose it all he does, as he watches Ashido stir the pot of curry over the fire. Against the fire, her pink skin blooms like flame flowers; her dark eyes glimmer like galaxies. The way she moves, she looks like she's always dancing-a little bob of the head, a little shake to the hips to an upbeat song she hums wordlessly. Her shadows trail along the ground in mesmerizing undulations.

Later, they're sitting next to the fire, warm plates of curry on their plates, huddling closer together for warmth despite the thickness of their jackets. The curry tastes even better than last time he had it, but he definitely isn't about to enjoy it in silence. Soon, a back-and-forth teasing naturally begins between them, accompanied by lots of nudging and playful slapping and nose-flicking at one point. It's as if the brief awkward moment never happened.

Ashido laughs heartily at one of his stories at one point-an experiment involving Kaminari and metal forks-when out of nowhere she leans into him, and he gets a whiff of the scent of oranges in her hair. "Hey, Han Sero?"

He snorts. "First it's Han-chan, and now Han Sero?"

"Hey, it's a cool nickname. Like Han Solo. What, you don't want to sound like the ultimate intergalactic scruffy-looking DILF?"

"Well now I don't! Who's scruffy-looking?!" He nudges her as she starts cackling joyfully, but not hard enough to push her warm weight off of him. "… so, _princess Mina,_ intergalactic MILF-what did you want to say?"

"Gross dude!" She snorts at his remark, however, and leans a little further into him, so that her eyes are to the sky and her head's so close to his chest that she probably hears his heart beating fast. "Nothing, really… I think it's cool that you went on this trip with me. You know, even if the rest of the squad can't make it, and it's just the two of us."

Sero hums quietly. "It's cool. Ajummas like you need fresh air every now and then. I'm just doing a public service-"

"I'm being really serious here, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerfherder!" That earns him a hard nudge at his ribs and lots of pinches at his upper arms and another round of raucous laughter. Eventually, they run out of energy and bad jokes. They collapse next to each other, heads side-by-side. Her pink hand, quite naturally, finds the crook of his arm and stays there.

"Yeah. I'm happy to have you right here too… Mina."

She gives him a contented little smile when she hears her name and leans in closer.

They gaze at the night sky, the bright half-moon, the twinkling stars, the endless galaxies that exist quite contentedly above their heads. Sero puts an arm around her and takes it all in.

* * *

They spend the night inside their cramped little tent, sleeping bags so close to each other he feels every movement she makes from her side like they're sharing a bed. Nevertheless, it's a peaceful night, and both of them manage to crawl out of their warm shared space, while the sky is still deep blues and greys.

They climb up the mountain trail, with Sero leading the way and having to hold Mina's hand on unstable ground. Suddenly it feels so natural to hold on to her hand like that, even when he feels the mild sting of her acid on his own palm. Their skins are both pale against the cold, but he notices her ears get pinker than before.

Finally, they make it to the lookout point, just as the sun rises up from the blanket of trees. Mina lets out a hearty whoop and raises both arms to the sky.

"Han-chan, can you believe this view?! it's awesome!" She says, dark eyes shining excitedly. "Totally worth the climb!"

He looks at her and her small, strong silhouette, all shades of pink and oranges and warmth, with the ethereal glow of the sunrise behind her covering her like a halo. Somehow the echo of her movements make him feel so… _alive._ He smiles at her meaningfully.

"Yeah. Totally worth it."

* * *

 **AN:** mina and han-chan look like your standard sitcom are-they-or-aren't-they best friends who watch out for each other through all good and bad relationships, only to end up getting married and having a cute lil family of their own ten years down the line

I wanted to expound their cuddly sleepy time in the tent together but I'm a lil sick rn, can't write for shit huhuhu-good thing i have a decent frontlog for these stories


	14. Day 14 - Desire - MonoShin

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 14 - Desire - MonoShin

 _AN: Alternate Title: Dessert First ;)_ _Hot n heavy stuff up ahead but nothing explicit_

* * *

Shinsou Hitoshi thinks he must be going insane.

The scene in front of him is admittedly mundane. Monoma Neito, owner of Monoma's __Boulangerie et Patisserie__ , making desserts. Today, they're in the Shinsou's kitchen at his apartment, and not at the larger one in the blonde's critically-acclaimed bakeshop. Instead of the chef's uniform he wears to work, he wears a simple white polo shirt over rose-coloured Bermuda shorts, with Shinsou's lone purple striped cat apron covering much of the view upfront. His face is one of pure concentration as he expertly whisks one concoction after another.

It's such a rare sight to see Monoma so serious. Even rarer to see him with his mouth closed. So isn't it weird that all Shinsou wants to do is to break his concentration and to have his tongue shoved deep inside that infuriating mouth?

Yep. Shinsou's going insane, because he's spent the past half-hour sitting on the counter, all previous desires of collapsing on his bed and sleeping until he has to wake up for his next 24-hour ER shift dissipating. Instead, he spends more time fully awake, staring at the blonde with as much concentration as he has making them another pretentious French dessert. He hasn't even bothered to change out of his scrub suit, or to pay attention to the cat since he got home from the hospital.

(Well, at least Mackerel isn't paying attention to them either, since Monoma has already fed him. The tabby cat lounges lazily under a bar of sun next to the window, paws curled and twitching. The perfect picture of comfort.)

"There." Monoma places the pan inside the oven and shuts it. He dusts his hands in satisfaction. "Now we wait."

Now that he's out of the zone, the serious look in his eyes are gone. Shinsou huffs at the loss-it's one of his favorite looks on him. Not that Monoma's any less cute with his usual acrid facial expressions, but when he's not being so damn abrasive, man. That boy can sure turn heads.

Right now, though, he snapped back to his default pestiferous mode. The blonde's smirking at him with those steely blue eyes. "So you've been awfully quiet there. Like what you see?"

"Just really weird to see you shut up for once."

He chuckles as Monoma pouts at him. The other boy walks nearer to him, peers up at his tired purple eyes. "My my, Dr. Shinsou. Here I am slaving away in the kitchen to feed your starving ass and all you have for me is verbal abuse. Aren't you just shameless?"

"Sure," the purple-haired man retorts. Because it goads him to come closer. "I only spent the past few weeks saving lives and making a difference and all that heroic shit. Maybe being a little shameless in front of the most shameless man on the face of this doomed planet is what I deserve after all that."

Monoma raises a blonde eyebrow at that remark. "My hero," he says mockingly.

Shinsou smirks. There's a split second that he sees Monoma's eyes widen just a fraction, as he realizes too late what's about to happen. In the next, seamlessly, he sneaks into his mind and grabs hold of it.

In the next instant, Monoma's face is free of any traces of that teasing derision, or any other expression for that matter. Shinsou likes this look on him just as much-he doesn't get a lot of opportunities to use his quirk anywhere, and to use it on this man who actually __enjoys__ slipping under mind control just makes him __giddy.__

"Now, chef, you spent all morning making a mess in my kitchen." He's spent a lot of effort not to look too giddy though, even as he feels the thrill watching the way Monoma is just staring at him quietly, like a pet, waiting on his next command. He knows that having that deadpan look on his face drives the blonde crazy. And he wants him to go extra crazy today.

Shinsou picks up one of the bowls on the counter, one filled with the still-softened mixture of white chocolate and cream. He dips two fingers in the mixture, gathers a generous serving of it that drips down up to his wrist, and holds it up in front of him. "Clean this off. With your mouth."

Monoma obliges. He uses two hands to hold on to Shinsou's hand and obediently starts licking the chocolate off slowly. Tortuously. Using just the very tip of his tongue to take minuscule dollops of the liquid from his fingers. His eyes are blank, but they're staring right into his, almost challengingly. Figures that the first person who figures out how to be sly even under mind control would be him.

"That's not gonna get it clean enough," he drawls as boredly as he can. "Come on. Give it all you've got."

Not breaking his disconcerting eye contact, Monoma takes the mess in his mouth and starts sucking. He makes an agonizingly good show of hollowing his cheeks and taking his fingers up to his knuckles. He runs his tongue at his palm, the sides of his wrists, covering his bare skin generously with warm breaths. His hands grip his wrists a little tighter in his best efforts.

"There. Good, Neito." His free hand reaches out to the other man's head to caress those soft, golden locks. He knows that Monoma enjoys this, enjoys it even more to hear his name in that low purr that Shinsou uses when they're alone. He knows, too, that if he isn't under mind control, he'd be leaning in closer to his touch, just like a cat.

But Shinsou's feeling like a bit of an S today-he doesn't feel like giving Monoma what he really wants. At least, not so easily. Besides, the kitchen's still a bleedin' mess. Also, he's really effin' sleep-deprived. Mid-stroke, instead of a gentle caress, he suddenly pulls on Monoma's hair. With a yelp and a pop of his lips from Shinsou's fingers, he snaps out of mind control and looks at him, bewildered.

"What the-"

Shinsou also likes the pure, unaltered look of offense on that pretty blonde face. He chuckles, turns around and begins walking towards his room. "Later. Clean up the kitchen first. I'm going to take a nap."

Even though he does good on his promise not to use his quirk to make Monoma do chores, the blonde is still awfully pissed off. He enjoys the way he practically hears Monoma pout behind him. "You're such a bastard, Shinsou."

"I'm tired. I've every right to be a bastard," he drawls absently, then feels himself freeze mid-stride. His mind goes blank as he feels the familiar tightening at the center of his mind once Monoma takes over.

Oh shit.

"Like I'm letting you get away from me like that, Doctor Shinsou. I haven't seen you in 3 weeks," he hears him say smugly. "Now turn around and come back to me."

Shinsou calmly does just that. He stands in the small space between Monoma and the counter, instantly feels the warm tickle of the other man's breath on the skin of his neck. Feels the devious stare boring holes right into him.

He has the bowl of chocolate and cream on one hand. Shinsou watches with interest as he dips his whole entire hand in the bowl, entirely covering the skin of all of his fingers, his palm, the skin of his forearm. "I'm sorry for making such a mess," he says, his voice a cloying sing-song as he puts the mess over his own cheek in false contemplation, "… but I think I need your help cleaning this all off. With your mouth, if you please."

Even with the mischievous look in his fox-like eyes, Shinsou thinks it looks ridiculous. He would have laughed out loud if he weren't under mind control. Still, he obeys him. He licks the cream off his fingers, feels the sticky concoction on his cheeks and over his own fingers as he holds onto his arm. He doesn't know if he's able to top the absolutely obscene look Monoma gave him earlier when he did the same thing. Although, the way the blonde's biting his lower lip is a good indication that he might be close to that.

He isn't even done with the hand when Monoma takes it away from him and pulls him closer, so he can start working on his face. With his captured mind, Shinsou obediently licks chocolate off his face. He's a little annoyed at how they're making a bigger mess of the kitchen and each other, with the sticky mixture getting all over the counter and all over their skin and hair and his beloved purple cat apron, but any impulse to fight against Monoma's control dies down with each hungry moan that comes out of those thin lips.

"Mmhm, Hitoshi," he purrs, as the tip of his tongue cleans off the corner of his mouth. "Come a little closer."

All pretense of cleaning totally gone, their mouths come for each other, all tongues and teeth and hunger. By this time, Monoma has let go of his mind, and the only thing stopping Shinsou from putting a stop to this is his own, out-of-control desire to keep on tasting him.

And taste him he does. He flips them over so that the smaller boy's back is against the counter, so that there's a little more stability as he continues to ravage his mouth and the skin of his neck and collarbone. The weeks passed by him stupidly quick because of how busy it is at the ER, and he only remembers just how long 3 weeks without Monoma is now that he's writhing under his touch.

Their mouths separate with a loud sound as they spend a moment catching their breaths. "Hey," Shinsou says, staring right into Monoma's eyes and swollen lips. "I missed you, Neito."

His fox-like eyes look up at him, equal parts tender and smug. "And you were gonna sleep on me."

All he wants now is to bite that smart mouth, but before he's able to, the oven dings _ _.__ Simultaneously, they turn to the appliance, each giving it a dirty look for all the good it does them. Monoma exhales loudly and gently pushes Shinsou off of him.

"Well, that's that. Dessert first." As much as he loves Shinsou, he loves desserts just as much. He moves for one of the potholders hanging along the wall, when Shinsou takes a hold of his wrist and effortlessly pulls him back in his arms.

Monoma makes a sound of protest, complains something about the creme brullee overcooking in the oven, but he shuts him up with another kiss. His tongue works its way inside his sweet mouth once more as he lifts the smaller boy by the waist.

"Hitoshi," Monoma says warningly. Despite that, though, his legs go around his trunk and his thin arms go around his neck. Shinsou inhales all the sweet scents gratefully and smiles against his messy chest.

"What? You said dessert first."

With an impish smile on his face, he carries his weakly protesting, chocolate-covered lover into the showers.

* * *

 **AN:** Yay finally I wrote a Monoshin without angst~ but it's still awkward so whatever~ hope you liked it!

So this is a tiny bit of the AU I accidentally created when I was working on the Day 21 story lol... obvs half the cast are doctors, while half the cast are cafe owners/patisseries :) There's three stories total but the main one will be published on Day 21~


	15. Day 15 - Tears - MomoKen

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 15 - Tears - MomoKen

 _AN: Alternate title: why the group 3 fight ended up the way it did_

 _[This ficlet also features implied TodoMomo and TetsuKendo.]_

* * *

Kendo Itsuka doesn't see Yaoyorozu Momo cry a lot. She'd always known the raven-haired girl from 1-A to be as strong as she is beautiful, which is very. Yet, the two times Yaoyorozu broke down in front of her are something that Itsuka will never forget.

The first time is during their week of internships with Uwabami. They'd just come from a full day of photoshoots, fan-meets, and a sorry excuse of a patrol where their Heroine strutted the streets uptown as if it were a catwalk, and spent more time posing for fans instead of looking out for trouble. It's a frustrating day, in other words, and all Itsuka wanted then is to wipe her face free of the layers of terrible make-up and to spend the rest of her time training on her own at home.

Her plans all shatter when she hears her cry in the locker rooms. It's a quiet sound; Yaoyorozu tries to be dignified in everything she does, even in private moments like breaking down in front of her locker - and when Itsuka catches her, she hides her face in her hands like it's a crime to cry.

She makes one excuse after another - it's just a false eyelash getting in her eyes, on top of allergies, on top of a purely physical exhaustion from their day. Obvious lies that she tries to hide behind her usual polite, genteel demeanor. Her eyes are bloodshot enough to match her hero costume, however, and Itsuka can't stand to leave her alone.

She gently takes her hands from her face, harshly tells her to cut the bullshit. This earns her a wide-eyed look of surprise. "Kendo-san," she gasps gently upon hearing the red-head's unexpected expletive.

"I've been hearing you make excuses all week, Yaoyorozu," she tells her. She squeezes both of her pale hands, the tips of which are smeared with sickeningly sweet-smelling make-up. "It's okay to be honest with me, okay? You can tell me that this internship sucks if you want to. I actually think the same thing too."

Black eyes shine with the next onslaught of tears. "It… it's n-not bad…" she says weakly. Her soft hands curl within Itsuka's rough ones. She marvels at how small her hands are, how she's able to enclose them so easily without using her quirk.

The red-head sighs, fully intending to tell her off for persisting in praising Uwabami so blindly for wasting a week's worth of internships. "Yaoyorozu…"

But the dark-haired girl sobs a little louder, a little more unrestrained this time, to interrupt Itsuka's words. "... it's terrible… I'm h-having a t-terrible time, Kendo-san…"

And just like that, the dam breaks. After her honest thought escapes from her so politely, Yaoyorozu leans further into Itsuka and begins crying a little more honestly. Itsuka catches her immediately and places her hands over her back, for whatever little comfort it may provide, even though what the other girl says next absolutely breaks her heart. "I thought she took us in because she thought we were strong, Kendo-san, but she obviously didn't even think of what we can do!… is there really nothing more to me than just looks?"

At first, the redhead does nothing but console her, mumble little nothings like _it's okay_ and _just let it all out;_ pats strategic points over the crying girl's back, to make sure that she calms down. Yaoyorozu isn't calming down, though, and her shame and self-doubt comes out in a never-ending stream. "They're right about me." "I don't deserve to be here." "I'm not strong enough to be a heroine." "Kendo-san, what am I _doing_ here?"

Now, Kendo Itsuka isn't a woman of impulse. All of her actions and decisions, even the ones she makes under pressure, all have a direction. But seeing the strong girl in front of her breakdown, she couldn't stop her mouth from slipping, "Momo… you're a strong girl, and one of the smartest ones I know. And believe me when I say that I believe that you're going to be one of the strongest among us yet."

It's a simple enough slip, just calling her Momo without any fancy honorifics to distance herself from the girl in front of her. Yet, the moment it comes out, she feels the girl hold on to her tighter, feels her soften and melt into her touch.

"Kendo-san… Itsuka-san," she mumbles into her shoulder. A simple thing it is, to call each other by their names. Itsuka feels a little warmer as she holds her closer. "If only I can be as strong and as beautiful as you are. If only I were more like you."

Itsuka lifts her by the shoulders briefly, stares right into those teary raven eyes. Momo stares back at her, a little shaken with eyes red and cheeks red and full mouth quivering.

 _If you only knew._ "You're you, Momo. That's all you need to be."

There's a moment where even more tears flow out of her eyes, but Itsuka's sure that it's not just sorrow that makes them flow.

The raven-haired girl throws herself into her arms and holds onto her for a little longer.

* * *

The second time Itsuka sees her cry is right after their Joint Exercise.

She told her something she admittedly wished she didn't after it is all over - "You have better grades and a better quirk than me, so whenever people would lump us together like that, I really couldn't stand it…" and challenged her outright, as if what they have together is a mere petty rivalry to see who's better than who. Momo wholeheartedly accepted her challenge, in her own words, and the battle between the 'generals' of 1A and 1B turned out to be the most exhilarating experience on the field that Itsuka ever had to date.

Seeing the girl unconscious, hanging on her with ropes all over, some of them incompletely formed and blended with her skin, fills her with a sense of pride for the two of them. Momo gave it her all, and made Itsuka give it her all too. It's a good fight, and even though she tells everyone that she doesn't feel like she's really won, she gives everyone a celebratory smile. It's worth it to celebrate finding that one person who can gladly push you to your limits.

But soon, the feeling of victory dies down horribly in her throat. A robot comes for them, cuts out the rope, and wakes Yaoyorozu up from her unconsciousness. She's shaken as she is loaded on a ready-made wheelchair, and the annoyed robot voice beeps to them that her weak organic life form must be seen in the infirmary the soonest possible.

Momo obliges and looks up at the tired Itsuka with a weak smile. "This proves it, Kendo-san," she says, with restraint in her throat. She hides her suddenly too-thin body encased in her torn hero suit within the confines of her cape, making her look smaller than she really is. "You're really the stronger one between us. The smarter one, the braver one… You have no idea how… how utterly _jealous_ I am of you right now. I really have nothing else to say."

She says this so politely that Itsuka feels a little affronted. "Don't say that, Yaoyorozu," she tells her with as much comfort as she can ease in her voice. "You really gave me a good fight out there. This doesn't prove a thing about us two… well, maybe except how awesome all of us in our teams are."

Momo looks down. Itsuka stares at the shadows that her long eyelashes make on her cheeks. "I don't know about that…"

The wave of self-doubt from the girl radiates from her like a fever. Itsuka opens her mouth, fully intending to tell her off once again, wants to tell her with all honesty about how she's wrong to think that because Itsuka herself can't figure out why no matter how she does, Momo keeps taking her breath away with how strong and smart and _beautiful_ she is, inside and out. But in the next moment, they're interrupted by loud footsteps rushing towards them like a freight train.

"KENDO-SAN, KENDO-SAN! YOU WERE AMAZING!"

"Tetsu-?!" A little gasp escapes from her as she feels herself being lifted off her feet and her midsection being squeezed like a bottle of ketchup. The smell of sweat and iron invades her nostrils.

"I KNEW YOU WOULD WIN!" Tetsutetsu yells, making everyone around them, even the robots flinch. "Take that, Todoroki! Didn't I tell you how Kendo-san's the best one there is, ever?!"

"Tetsu…!" Itsuka whines with an awkward laugh and taps his arm. "Please let me down, I can't breathe-"

Tetsutetsu makes a silly surprised sound. As Itsuka feels her breath coming back to her, it's only then that she notices the unique half-white, half-red colouring that can only belong to one person in the entire school.

"Yaoyorozu," Todoroki Shouto calls out, blatantly ignoring how Tetsutetsu just called him out. He's half-jogging by the time he's near them. A look of pure concern is on his face as he kneels next to the girl's wheelchair, targeting his mismatched eyes into her dark ones.

"Todoroki-san." The way she says his name sounds almost reverent. She shakes ever so slightly as she attempts to avoid his sharp, heterochromatic gaze. "I'm sorry… I must have let the entire class down with my loss-"

Itsuka watches as suddenly and very easily, Momo's breathless and within Todoroki's arms.

A strange, ugly feeling rises from within her chest as she strains to listen to the words being exchanged between them. "You did good." "You blew us all away." "You're strong and you're going to be even stronger."

"I'm proud of you, Yaoyorozu."

Who knew Todoroki is capable of such gentle words? By the end of it, Momo's eyes are overflowing with tears of joy. She shakes and buries her face in Todoroki's shoulder, mumbling words that only the two of them will hear.

 _Only the two of them…_

Itsuka turns away. The knowledge that none of her words can reach Momo's heart the way Todoroki's able to do so seamlessly feels like a black hole tearing into her heart.

"Yeah… I really don't feel like I've won…"

She feels a strong, yet careful grip around her wrist. She doesn't need to look up to know who it is, and so she keeps her eyes to the ground, worried about the tears that suddenly want to leak out of the corners of her stupid eyes.

"Kendo-san," Tetsutetsu says. It's the first time she hears his voice so quiet, so sincere, with a feather-like undertone of pleading hiding within. "Just… just you wait! I'll do so well, I'm going to give it my all, I'm going to work so hard to be like you… I'll make you proud, too!"

Itsuka looks up at him, looks at the tiny black dots for eyes and exquisite silver edges framing his face and his ridiculously strong frame. Looks at his burning fervor, looks at the sudden gentle soft look in his eyes that she's never seen before.

She smiles up at him, tries not to let her eyes shine too much with unshed tears, tries to give him the most convincing smile she can manage even as her heart is breaking into little tiny pieces. "I know you will, Tetsu. Now, knock the competition right outta here."

As the two boys eventually rush back to the field to start their own fight, Itsuka watches as a now-calmer Momo is wheeled off into the infirmary. She tries to swallow down the sudden feeling of loss in the depths of her heart and decides to watch the rest of the fights alone.

* * *

 **AN:** Here I go again with the unrequited love route T_T sorry about this one


	16. Day 16 - Love - TsuTsu

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 16 - Love - TsuTsu

 _AN: This mess of a ficlet also features background Setsuna/Kaibara (... SetsuSen...?) if u squiiiint_

* * *

Life as an aspiring hero isn't the simplest thing. Even though he's fortunate enough to be in the relatively stable 1-B (and not 1-A, to which lady luck keeps a steady storm of shit flowing into their collective fortunes), he's had his own share of sticky situations.

However, for the first time ever, Tsuburaba Kosei, 16 years old, finds himself facing a conundrum so puzzling that he needs to look up the word 'conundrum' to describe it. And that thing which he faces is…

 _Love._

He covers his mouth shut just thinking about the word. He has to, 'cause otherwise he'd blow a neat little air prison around him with just enough room for him to rock back and forth and to hit his head against the wall as much as he needs to, until he calms down. Given that he's contemplating all this in the 1-B classroom with all his other classmates milling about him, it'd definitely cause a commotion and would likely send him to an unwarranted trip to Recovery Girl's office. Or the loony bin, if her humble little clinic is unequipped to treat vexing emotional problems like his. Which it likely is.

"You're thinking about that 1-A girl again, man?" Kaibara Sen asks, as he leans against the desk next to him. His usual judgy stare is extra judgy as he watches Tsuburaba struggle against the turmoil of his emotions.

"You don't get it man," he says with a sigh. As he opens his mouth, a puff of solid air the size of a dinner plate forms in front of his face and crashes to the ground like, well, a dinner plate. The sound resonates throughout the classroom. This only earns him a pointed glare from half of his classmates. It's a little embarrassing that the class is now used to the noisy sound of his sighing fits that none of them even flinches.

"Hey, you're talking about Tsuyu-chan, aren't you?" It's Tokage Setsuna who suddenly chimes in, turning her seat around and fixing her reptilian eyes to him. "Well _I_ understand you perfectly, Tsuburaba-kun. She's awfully cute."

Ah, yes. Small and pretty and strong and smart and _awfully cute._ With her huge round eyes and forest-green hair with that complex hair bow thing that makes her look elegant and down-to-earth at the same time. With that cute little slip of her tongue always peeking from her mouth. He can go on and on about Tsuyu-chan-oh, Asui-san-can't pretend to be too close now, since they unfortunately don't _really know each other_ then, never really had a proper interaction before apart from that one time she said _caught you!_ In that cute little croak of hers, but-

"Hey, wait a minute-' _Tsuyu-chan_ '? Since when did you have the right to call her t-t- _Tsuyu-chan?!_ "

The green-haired girl snorts at the way he hesitates over his green-haired goddess' first name. When he presses her further about how she earned the right to call Asui-san that, she merely shrugs, wide eyes mildly amused. "She told me to call her that. We're practically close friends now."

"What? Since when?!"

"Since I made friends with her. Duh. I figured us cold-blooded heroines should stick together." She sticks out her forked tongue at him, looking absolutely mischievous. "It's super easy, dude. Just go next door and talk to her. She's really friendly."

"Easy for you to say," Tsuburaba groans in exasperation. Another transparent plate of air forms in front of him, which he catches with one hand and places on his desk before it breaks. "You guys don't understand. The moment she captured me, I was so sure that she's my-"

"100% perfect girl. Yeah. We know," Kaibara says boredly, already spinning one of his fingers to amuse himself. "You've only told us that everyday since the Joint Training Exercise, man."

He's miffed that Kaibara would say it so flatly, like it isn't a miracle to know in the deepest part of your heart that the girl who has wrapped your entire body with her tongue and subsequently threw you in a cage during a really violent all-out battle royale is your 100% perfect girl. Damn, just thinking of the way his heart throbbed, how _right_ everything felt when he was enveloped in the warmth, when parts of her tongue covered his m-m-mouth-

"You've got that awful perverted look in your eyes again, Tsuburaba-kun. They're looking extra googly today," points out Tokage in amusement. "You better not let her see you like this."

He isn't being perverted, he's merely remembering their first tender moment together. Although, granted, one day when he's giving their two future children his well-rehearsed How I Met Your Mother spiel, he's gonna have a hard time making the tongue incident sound romantic and magical…

"He's thinking about the tongue thing again," Kaibara tells her bluntly, stone-cold as ever. "Definitely perverted."

"Yeah. That's disgusting, Tsuburaba-kun," cackles the lizard-girl with a teasing grin. "Forget about my advice to go up and talk to her. I have to protect Tsuyu-chan from you at all costs."

Such friends. He's about to retort harshly and defend the purity of his love for her when Kaibara shoves him with a sharp elbow to the shoulder. "Shut it. Monoma's back and extra manic today."

True enough, the guffaw of their fearless, shameless blonde leader reverberates throughout the classroom. "Victory upon our shores again, you deplorable Class 1-A! Aren't you supposed to be _smarter_ than us? When your class grade average is 0.75 points less than ours?!"

There's a collective sigh of exasperation and gloom inside the 1-B classroom. Tsuburaba feels lucky that Monoma doesn't know about his raging crush on someone from 'deplorable 1-A'. But it's true that ages ago, he'd rather have nothing to do with any of the competition, especially not the class that keeps upstaging them. Now his distaste for 1-A's lessened, and limited only to the other 19 students in that class.

Isn't it funny, how love changes a man for good?

Someone argues incomprehensibly against him-from the sound of the voice, it's probably Red Tetsutetsu who's talking back to Monoma-before the blonde's undeterred cackle resonates around the room once more. "Who cares if it's just in English? I didn't read the entire list! Aren't you supposed to beat us in _all_ the subj-"

The loud smacking sound that everyone's accustomed to comes next, and they instantly knew that Kendo-san has taken care of it. Soon, the very capable redhead apologizes profusely to the other students in the hallway. "Sorry 'bout that, friends. He's just a liiiittle jealous that Shinsou-kun transferred to your class, and not ours."

A muffled croak comes out through the door, and that beautiful sound is enough to snap the wide-eyed boy out of his disinterest. "It's okay, Kendo-chan. I don't think Monoma-chan's any different from his usual self, _ribbit._ You're doing a good job of keeping him under control."

His heart actually _stops_. There's an entire second where his heart forgets what to do. He isn't being dramatic when he makes an ugly, embarrassing sound and clutches his chest comically.

"Aw, I'm so glad my efforts are appreciated~ Tsuyu-chan, you are such a bright spot in a thankless day!"

" _Ribbit._ I do what I can. Keep working hard, Kendo-chan."

He catches a peek of her long, green hair flowing behind her as she walks away with the redhead from 1-A. Not like he's spying or stalking or anything, but what's red Tetsutetsu doing, just walking together during lunchtime, just the two of them?! Never mind that they look terrible together-they look like an incomplete set of traffic lights, they look like bad Christmas decorations, they'd have _horrible_ looking children together, not like the potentially cute round-eyed wonderkids he already fathered in his head-

"Chill, Tsubu," Tokage breaks through his off-the-rails mental rant with a shit-eating grin and a cackle. "Is my poor boy jelly of Kirishima-kun? Now that's just priceless."

"Who's jealous? Not me. Maybe _you're_ jealous." he mutters, as he crashes forehead-first into his desk. Over and over. Who'd be jealous of that hardening rip-off who deems himself worthy of having lunch with his 100% perfect girl, just the two of them? Not him, definitely. And there's definitely no need to remember Red Tetsutetsu's name and to put him in a kill list. No need at all.

He practically hears Kaibara roll his eyes at him. Might be spinning them like a drill, with how bored he is of this discussion already. "Dude, seriously, just man up and talk to her. If she's really your 100% perfect girl - whatever the hell you mean by that - you probably owe it to yourself to at least have a real interaction with her."

A real interaction with her does sound nice. They can go to a nice cafe and have a nice conversation. He'd listen to her talk about swimming and rainy days and other things she might like. He'd talk to her about classes and heroism and the things he likes. Maybe invite her to watch the next Giants game with him, if she's up to it. And then they'd have so much fun, she'd _ribbit_ in that cute way of hers and ask him if they can do this again, and-

"Interactions in your head don't count," Kaibara interrupts rudely, cutting in through the very vivid pleasant images he's formed in his head.

Tsuburaba scowls at his friends. "I know that," he grumbles. "I just-you know, I have to be _ready,_ I can't just walk up to her and talk to her-"

"That's what I did. Literally," Tokage supplies flatly, to which he makes an exasperated sound. "Look, it's not hard, okay? She's cool, she can talk to literally anyone, even a disaster like you." She makes a face of enlightenment in the next second, and puts a fist in her palm. "Hey, I think I have an idea how _we_ can help you out, Tsuburaba-kun-"

"I'm not helping," Kaibara cuts in, which Setsuna ignores blatantly.

"-all you have to do is come with me and Kaibara-kun later, after class. I'll take care of the rest." There's no malice at all in the excited, almost manic grin that she flashes the hapless brown-haired boy. Still, he can tell that it reeks of trouble, and he makes his disdain plain on his face.

"Or… you could spend the rest of the school year pining over her and whiling away in obscurity. Your choice."

Well… even though obscurity's a safe place to be, he's sure that if he pines over her, it won't be just for the rest of the school year. Such are the cruel throes of love.

The first bell rings, cutting their discussion short. Present Mic-sensei's shrill voice resonates inside the classroom, forcing most thoughts about his green-haired goddess to the back of his mind, in favor of conjugations.

* * *

Later, Tsuburaba finds himself staring at the back of Tokage's green head as the girl marches her way quite cheerfully towards the 1-A classrooms. He's trailing behind her with his hands in his pockets, cool as a stone-cold cucumber that's progressively shriveling over a piping hot BBQ grill.

"Keep cool, Tsuburaba-kun," the lizard-girl whispers conspiratorially at him as she stops by the back door. "Just follow my lead. I'll take care of ya."

"This is dumb," he hears Kaibara mumble behind him. For all his complaints though, he still followed the two of them all the way there, under the pretense of making sure neither of them do anything to embarrass 1-B in front of 1-A anymore than Monoma has.

Well, he can say anything he wants, Tsuburaba's pretty sure that the guy's out there just to watch over Tokage. At the moment though, said lizard-girl is now peeping through the doors and catches someone's eye. "Hi, Tsuyu-chan!"

" _Kero?_ It's Setsuna-chan! What brings you here, _kero?_ "

The two green-haired girls hug each other as if they're old friends. Tsuburaba tries to convince himself that maybe it's all a green-haired-solidarity kind of arrangement and that it's stupid to be jealous that Tokage's somehow on a first name basis with Asui, but he feels himself turn green all the same.

"Listen, Tsuyu-chan, I was hoping to ask you for a favor," she says, gesturing to the two boys ever so casually. "Me and these guys are having trouble in Heroics history… I know you guys are like a couple of lessons ahead of us, so I was hoping we could study with you? We're _really desperate._ "

Asui glances briefly at them. When her dark, round eyes fall over his, Tsuburaba feels the moment stretched out in slow motion. Flowers blooming in the background, twinkling lights, all that _shoujo manga_ shebang.

"... sure, I don't mind, _ribbit._ I was planning to go to the library myself to study."

He struggles to keep his cool, even though again, there's another couple seconds where his heart seems to forget what the fuck it's supposed to do. Tokage's response barely registers with him. "Cool! But the library's _so boring._ Lucky for us, Tsuburaba-kun's feeling generous today and was planning to treat us all to coffee at StrumBucks-"

Wait, what? Tsuburaba feels his eyes going wider than ever possible as he glares at the undeterred Tokage and her runaway mouth.

"-so it'll be a fair trade. Your notes for coffee. Tsuburaba-kun, you don't mind buying Tsuyu-chan coffee too, right?"

Of course he doesn't mind buying her coffee. Heck, he'd buy her all the coffees she wants. Cakes. Parfaits. A three course dinner. A house and lot. What he minds very much though that Tokage's just teasing him so freely in front of his hopeless crush, and somehow swindling him out of his allowance at the same time.

"I think that sounds fair. I want a grande vanilla cold brew, Tsuburaba," adds Kaibara dully. He also minds very much that he's also suddenly obliged to treat these two jerks to expensive coffee. True friends, indeed.

For all his rage though, all Tsuburaba can do is gape at them like a fool. And Asui's looking at him with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Okay. I'll go with you guys. But it's also okay if Tsuburaba-chan doesn't treat me to coffee, _ribbit,"_ she answers coolly.

 _Tsuburaba-chan._ Oh, the sheer rush of emotions that run through his chest hearing his own name from her mouth. It gives him enough strength to somehow say, "No, it's cool, Asui. You get coffee too. No big deal."

"Look at you, Mister Moneybags," he hears Tokage mumble behind him. Wow. He sounded cool just then, didn't he? He probably did, judging by the little smile on the lizard girl's face. (He's pointedly trying _not_ to look at Kaibara's face, though).

"Well, okay. But I'm okay either way. Promise." Her big round eyes crease ever so slightly as she looks up at him. "By the way, call me Tsuyu-chan, _ribbit._ "

He's done it. He's on Tsuyu-chan terms with Tsuyu-chan. If he has any less self-control, he would have already jumped for joy and clicked his heels in mid-air and made a giant invisible sky scraper out of all the breath inside his happy little lungs.

"Same goes for you, Kaibara-chan," she says, turning to the darker-haired boy next to him. Tsuburaba instantly feels the skyscraper shatter into tiny little bits, as if he just let OG Tetsutetsu and beast mode Shishida-kun and a pack of rabid dogs loose inside it.

Tokage looks like she's about to burst out laughing when she glances once more at the crestfallen Tsuburaba, but she's able to keep it together as she suggests the four of them start walking to the cafe.

Conversation flows naturally between the two green-haired girls, while the complete opposite happens with the two brown-haired boys. He can only hope that the silence makes the two of them look like the cool, brooding types of guys that girls seem to like (i.e. Todoroki Shouto, whose allure has also somehow infected the girls of 1-B and the rest of the school. That half-head really has everything dammit).

When they make it to the cafe, Tokage drags Kaibara with her to secure seats, or so she says. "I'm having what Fidget-Spinner-Boy's having. Tsuyu-chan, order anything you want," she says rapidly, not giving any of the three any chance to protest.

And so Tsuburaba Kosei finds himself standing next to his 100% perfect crush, in a line to buy her coffee, so they can spend time together in a coffee shop. There are couples in front of them and behind them and he can't help but think that they now look very much like a couple on an actual honest-to-goodness date.

" _Ribbit._ Setsuna-chan's really hyper, isn't she." She croaks humorously. The top of her head only reaches his shoulder. Ahh so cute…!

"... yeah." He hopes that steam doesn't blow out of his nose-he doesn't want someone nearby to get aircuts.

"It must be interesting in your class, Tsuburaba-chan."

"... yeah, it gets wild sometimes. But I'm sure it's not as wild as your class, though."

Tsuyu-chan stares up at him blankly. Shit, did he say something offensive? "N-not that I mean you guys are a pack of wild animals-I mean, have you _seen_ my classmates? Compared to you guys, we're practically a zoo-"

A pleasant sound emerges from her mouth and into Tsuburaba's ears. Hearing it makes him forget about the very concept of anxiety. "You were right the first time, Tsuburaba-chan. Our class is pretty wild too. That's why I think we should work together more, _ribbit._ The Joint Training Exercises were fun."

 _Hngh,_ thinks Tsuburaba, as he thinks about her tongue around his body again. Now is _not_ the time to think of that totally-not-perverse memory! He turns his face away from her in a stupid effort to keep his stupid face in-line.

"Oh-Tsuburaba-chan must be remembering our fight too, _ribbit._ "

Oh shit, she noticed?! Whatever happiness he might have felt knowing that she, at some level, thought about _him_ too, shatters as she keeps those discerning eyes on him. Shit, did she see him with that unmistakable lecherous glint in his eyes?! Is this it, is it over? Is she going to run out the door screaming, crying, swearing on the graves of her ancestors to never have anything to with him ever again?! "W-well, about th-that-"

"It's as I thought, _ribbit."_ She sighs, suddenly despondent. "I thought it's weird that Setsuna-chan left us alone, even though we're not friends. She must be trying to patch things up between us, isn't she, _ribbit?_ "

Eh? Come again?

Tsuyu-chan tilts her cute little face at him with a look of concern on her usually unreadable face. "I'm right, aren't I? I noticed that you were awfully quiet in the cage after I captured you, _ribbit…_ ever since then, I was worried that Tsuburaba-chan definitely hated me-"

Hated… _hated_ Tsuyu-chan?! That's not the case at all!

"-but I wasn't able to talk to you guys after the exercises, so I wasn't able to apologize to you properly, _ribbit_." Her eyes are downcast as she says this. She twiddles two large, webbed fingers together cutely. "So… I'm glad I have a proper chance to say sorry to you now…"

No, that's wrong, Tsuburaba would _never_ hate on Tsuyu-chan. Never, you hear?! Tsuyu-chan's too cute, too wonderful, too _perfect_ to be hated. Besides, I mean, who would hate on their 100% perfect-

"... _ribbit…?"_

"Um," the cashier tells him awkwardly, as his mouth is frozen open with the impassioned words dying within. "S-sorry, you're having 100% what, sir?"

Tsuburaba turns to the cashier slowly, googly-eyes twitching, neck cracking with each gear-like shift of his suddenly stiffened body. "U… uhh… 100%, perfect… roasted… coffee beans… in milk…?"

The poor cashier, who looks like she isn't paid enough for this shit, is staring at his madman's antics in confusion. "So… a latte?"

Tsuyu is staring up at him with eyes as wide as vinyl discs, stunned beyond belief. Like someone just told her that the sky isn't blue, that global warming isn't real. Or that she's some 1-B weirdo's 100% perfect… perfect _something_ that he isn't able to properly finish, she might as well think that she's his 100% perfect cause of death, for all he's good for. Shit, why the heck is he like this?! How much did he say out loud?

" _R… ribbit,_ " she croaks after what seems like an eternity of just staring at him. Trying hard not to be too mortified, she turns to the cashier, face suddenly red and voice suddenly timid, "We also want two grande vanilla cold brews and a soy latte…"

"Okay…" He doesn't even hear how much the total is. Instead, he shoves a 5000 yen bill into the cashier's hands, looks down on the floor, and rushes to the other side of the counter, not daring to look at the face of the girl who just heard the worst confession ever on the face of this planet.

As he makes his way to sulk over the counter, he sees Kaibara and Tokage staring at him, and he isn't sure if they're sympathizing with him or trying their hardest not to burst out laughing right in their seats. He has half a mind to put ten tablespoons of cinnamon in their drinks for leaving him unsupervised, when he sees a small, green form in the other side of his peripheral vision.

" _Ribbit,_ " Tsuyu-chan says, shyly holding out an array of bills and coins in her large hands, "You forgot your change…"

"Thank you," he says quietly. He feels the tips of her fingers on his palm as she carefully places the money within-he momentarily forgets his shame as he feels their point of contact, only to have it come back full-force when he is forced to see the way she couldn't look him in the eye.

"Asui-san… I'm really sorry for, you know… making things awkward for you," he tells her in the most honest, heartfelt way he can. "Yeah… I'm being really honest, but… I d-don't mind if you change your mind about studying with us. No need to pay me back for the coffee-"

Again, he feels his breath just die in his stupid throat when he notices her tugging on his sleeve. He feels his already-wide eyes widen even further, like they're going to come out of their sockets.

Before he can figure out what's going on and maybe pick up after his eyeballs that have surely popped out of their sockets by now, Tsuyu-chan looks up at him with an odd look in her eyes. "Um… Tsuburaba-chan… I don't really understand what's going on…"

Of course she doesn't. Tsuburaba himself doesn't understand what's going on. He'd pay another 5000 yen if someone gives him a good explanation as to why the hell he is like this. Bonus tips if the guy gives him a good and thorough beating and whisks his fried-egg eyes for him.

"... and I really don't know anything about you, so…"

He shuts his eyes, tries not to look too much like the insides of his chest is being thrown into a blender. Hopefully, with the way he's struggling with his stupid face, Tsuyu-chan just thinks that he's had an acute case of constipation.

"… so I can't give you a proper reply yet, _ribbit._ But… but I don't mind if we try to be friends first, _ribbit_."

Friends. The term echoes in his head, like the sound of the microwave dinging in a cold and hungry night. He snaps his head up to face her, and he's treated to the sight of her shyly trying to meet his eyes for just a second.

"Yeah… okay." The weight disappears from his shoulders, and for the first time he's able to look at her calmly. "I'd like that."

To everyone's pleasant surprise, the two of them are able to walk peacefully to the table, where a giddy Tokage and a suspiciously-relieved Kaibara are waiting for them. They're able to study their coursework, as promised, and Tsuburaba is proud to say that even though he spent 100% of the time fawning over his 100% perfect girl, the girl spent about 40% of her time interacting with him. Plus, he's able to answer at least 50% of the coursework this time!

Now, when's the next Giants game…?

* * *

 **AN:** I don't know how this thing reached 4k words when I just bullshitted out all the characterizations of these 1B kids T_T I sure hope it isn't too far off from canon

Sorry i really rushed the ending to this one haha i might rewrite it someday

I got the '100% Perfect Girl' term from one of my favourite short stories ever: On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning by Haruki Murakami but of course the stories are nothing alike~


	17. Day 17 - Future - ShioMei

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 17 - Future - ShioMei

* * *

The moment Hatsume Mei lay her eyes over Shiozaki Ibara, she knew that this girl will be the end of her.

She can't even remember how their paths crossed. Mei isn't one to remember names or faces of her classmates or of her clients in the hero courses, instead she remembers them by their distinct traits and the support items they use-for example, billboard muffler-legs and broken-arms with supports and brainwasher with artificial vocal cords. She can probably pick them out in a crowd and tell you with confidence how the items she'd lovingly made worked with their quirks. But ask her about who that person is, their hero names, what they stand for? She'd probably stare at you quizzically, with a _I don't understand the question and I refuse to acknowledge it_ kind of expression on her face, and resume working on her babies.

Yet, Shiozaki Ibara… of course the first name she remembers is _hers._ It's baffling and astonishing that Hatsume Mei recognizes a human being other than Powerloader-sensei, and she is loath to admit that fact to anyone, even herself.

She remembers her as clearly as the blueprints to her baby jetpack legs-a girl from one of the hero classes who thinks that most hero costumes are useless vanities and support items are massive displays of human arrogance. "One needs only their God-given quirks to fight," she declared loudly enough for Mei to hear, as a response to some extra or another who asked her why she has chosen to fight her battles in nothing but a flimsy white pillowcase. Without even bothering to wear sandals, even in the wintertime. Her power remains fearsome, all the same.

It's impressive to many, yet all Mei sees is, funnily enough, a massive display of human arrogance.

For the first time ever, the machinist feels a strong human emotion for a fellow human being, and not a machine. And of course, of all things, it has to be contempt. Granted, Mei doesn't know that it's contempt at first, because all her life she's never felt anything but detachment for organic life-forms.

Which is why, on this fateful encounter with her, Mei declares her beliefs loudly for the thorny girl to hear. "I don't believe in God, I believe in science." And she does it while she's working on one of her latest babies, the leg-engine glasses dude's set of armor. It's merely an experiment, of course, one that's admittedly loaded with bias with poor outcome measures, but she tries it out just the same.

Shiozaki turns her frighteningly blank green eyes at her, and she knows her hypothesis is correct. Mei feels a little proud of herself for being able to produce a frown on that perfect angelic mug of hers.

She makes a show of ignoring her, instead keeps her eyes on the machines in front of her. From the corner of her eyes, she sees the mesmerizing way she moves, as if she's walking on water on a dark and stormy night. The scent of olives tickles her nose, even through her face-mask, as the vine-girl comes closer to her.

"I see a lamb lost in the valley of the shadow of death." Her voice is chilly as it enters Mei's ears. A thorny vine curls around her neck and pricks the bottom of her chin lightly, as Shiozaki uses this to turn her head to face her.

"What was that? Sorry, I can't hear you over the sounds of sound scientific reasoning," Mei quips, in a tone that's hopefully sharper than her thorns.

Shiozaki stares at her, her mouth slightly agape at her retort. It's satisfying only for a second, because in the next moment there's an absolutely condescending look in those cold eyes. As if she's looking at a wretched orphan caught stealing from the church coffers. "As I've said, I see you are _truly_ lost. Swayed by earthly temptations, misguided by these these idolatrous adornments. You godless machinists are all the same."

Mei is wearing a set of thick goggles and a face mask, but she finds herself fighting to keep a straight face at how piercing Shiozaki's gaze is. The tightening vines around her don't help, either.

She tries not to falter as she says with a challenging grin, "I'll take godless machinist as a compliment, thank you. But do me a favor and not call my babies _earthly temptations_. They don't deserve being sullied by the likes of you."

Shiozaki hums contemplatively. She keeps her two hands clasped in front of her, like she's praying to God for strength and enlightenment. "A shepherd must return all sheep to its flock. What must I do to bring you to the path of righteousness and away from eternal damnation…?" she mumbles, blatantly ignoring Mei's yelps as the vines keep winding around her, closer. Tighter.

Mei's arms are bound to her side as they entwine around her like ropes. The thorns poke through her clothes and through her thick work gloves. They draw no blood, but perhaps they will if she struggles. It's only a matter of time before the machinist is lifted off the ground by Shiozaki's quirk.

"I for one, _forgive_ you for all your transgressions, my little lamb. If I act quickly… I can see your future in striking, heavenly clarity, Hatsume Mei," she says with an enlightened smile that's creepy in all possible ways. "I know now what I must do."

Before she can ask what she means by 'her future in striking, heavenly clarity'-because it sounds suspiciously like the girl has every intention of sending her to the other side, if such a thing exists- thick vines wrap around Mei's mouth, sealing any and all future complaints. The scent of herbs and flowers floating across a quiet stream overwhelm all her senses, until her mind forgets the comforting and familiar scent of grease and iron and steel. Quickly, before she is able to struggle and let the thorns shred through her skin, Shiozaki is already calling out to the dim areas of the support office, "Powerloader-sensei, I am borrowing one of your disciples. I need to save her from eternal damnation."

Mei starts to protest, but the blasted vines are still around her mouth. Powerloader is just a tad surprised at the development, but shrugs. "Um… sure, Shiozaki-kun. Can you feed her something while you're at it? She hasn't eaten anything in a day."

"Ask and you shall receive. I shall feed both her body and spirit," answers Shiozaki, already turning away. "For man cannot live on bread alone."

Mei doesn't need bread, she needs science! Besides, from this interaction alone, she's sure that Shiozaki's going to feed her tasteless flatbread without anything on it! Not that Mei would oppose to that-she'd eat anything, if she can eat it quickly and has enough nutrients to last her until her next meal 24 hours later.

Her sensei is unperturbed though. Even seems relieved that Mei's having such a prolonged interaction with anybody else, even though that person happens to be someone with serious delusions of grandeur. "Uh, sure. That'd work. A bath would be nice too."

"I shall submerge her body in waters as pure as the River Jordan and cleanse her spirit anew."

More like slam-dunk her in a nonconsensual baptism! Some of the vines move, as if they're ready to undress Mei as soon as Shiozaki wills it. She screams fruitlessly once more.

"And sleep?"

"If she is weary, she shall rest forever in the fields of Eden after I am done with her."

"Okay, that'll do. Thank you kindly."

 _You Judas! Powerloader-sensei!_ While Mei isn't one for biblical references, this is what she chooses to uselessly scream within the vines as she feels herself being carried away.

After she's threatened to feed her bread, drown her, and take her to her eternal resting place with Powerloader-sensei's blessing, she gives an eerie, self-satisfied smile up at the struggling Mei. "Worry not, little lamb. I shall be the angel who will guide you to the light."

"Mmmmph!" cries Mei, locking in her zoomy eyes over her beloved teacher, who looks a little too much like a man who's suffered centuries of misfortune (or a semester full of explosions in his precious laboratory) suddenly had something _right_ happen in his life for a change.

"No flirting in my office, please," Powerloader calls out brightly as they leave the room.

* * *

 **AN:** I know I'm late I'm sorry! It's been busy the past few days and I was barely able to write, much less beta all that I have written so far!

So Shiozaki seems to be on her merry way to flanderization to a religious yandere~ i initially wanted a Nacho Libre like encounter with her and Mei (hence the "I don't believe in God, I believe in Science" line) but it turned out like this instead lol...

There's so many things one can do with her thorns but I'll keep this PG.


	18. Day 18 - Dreams - SeroYama

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 18 - Dreams - SeroYama

 _AN: Cafe/Hospital AU part 1.5 ^^ I got a little emotional writing this_

* * *

Their home is small, warm and comfortable, with all the things that Yuuga liked, like fairy lights and French Rococo prints decorating the walls, and all the things that Sero liked like the old rusty Pepsi-Cola signage hanging over their couch and other such oddities carefully placed on their shelves. Books about European Cinema and the French Revolution are lined up side-by-side with biographies of Japanese political dissenters and the history of rock and roll. In the kitchen is a large oven, a refrigerator, half-full pantry, and not enough space; along the hallway where they remove their shoes, their white worn rubber shoes tiredly rest from another difficult duty at work.

Sero is lying on the couch, trying to will his migraine away when Yuuga comes up to him with a plate of sweets. "Rise and shine, _mon cher,_ " he greets him, as he sits next to the long legs splayed out on one end.

The dark-haired man grumbles something under his breath. Sun shines through their window and onto a spot on his tummy, slightly exposed where his safari-themed scrub suit has ridden up in his sorry excuse of a nap. However, Yuuga sees his nostrils flare a little, taking in the sweet scent of the food on his plate. It only takes a little more effort and a grunt for the tall man to sit up.

He's bleary-eyed, obviously tired beyond words. His unkempt hair falls over his shoulders and went in all directions, crumpled from his micro-sleep. But he attempts a grin as his sleep-deprived gaze falls on Yuuga. "Are those what I think they are?"

" _Oui._ Orangettes," Yuuga says, presenting the plate proudly to him.

"Oh my god." Sero gratefully takes the plate from him and appreciates the view a little bit. Yuuga likes that the taller man enjoys looking at his creations as much as he eats them. Although today, it's just a simple thing - slivers of orange peels dipped in chocolate, plated with little slices of tangerines on the side - yet Sero's treating it like high class gourmet. "These look great, Ao! And they taste mindblowingly amazing, as always."

" _Merci,_ " Yuuga says proudly as he watches the other man chew on one of the sweets. "I've been meaning to use the dark chocolates I bought from Monoma's. Apparently, his family knows one of the popular chocolatiers there and they're the only ones in Japan who has them."

Sero, who's undergoing an interesting face journey having a 'foodgasm,' in his own terms, somehow manages to give Yuuga a withering look at the same time. "You still hang out at Monoma's? That crazy rich kid?"

Yuuga laughs. " _Oui!"_ The dark-haired nurse offers him a mildly judgmental look, before he slaps him playfully on the arm. "He isn't that bad, _mon cher._ Perhaps… _farfelu_? Just on the surface, yes? When he's calm, he is actually quite eloquent!"

Stuffing two orangettes at the same time, Sero wrinkles his nose. "Yeah, well I don't like how he keeps ragging on Satou, just because they were in different classes in culinary school. And Satou's has a better orange chiffon cake. Just sayin'…"

"You do love your oranges, _mon cher._ "

"Yes, I do love my oranges." Sero says with a contented smile as he chews on one of the tangerine slices. Seeing him so content is enough for Yuuga's heart to feel full.

But talking about Monoma and Satou makes Yuuga feel a little pensive. "Hm. I'm willing to bet his insanity is rehearsed. His wailing from across the street somehow gets the two of them customers… well, customers who like to compare their goods, at least." Yuuga sighs dreamily. "Ah, but I think they are both _magnifique,_ yes? If it isn't for Chef Monoma's and Chef Satou's _rivalite_ , they wouldn't have exceeded their own capabilities…"

Sero stops chewing for a few seconds and trains his dark eyes onto Yuuga's. There's a moment of thoughtful silence before the other man's deep voice penetrates through the lightness of his mind. "You know, Ao-" he begins again with that honest tone, and the lithe blonde instantly knows what he's about to say.

" _Mon cher,_ don't say it-"

"I have to! As many times as I need to, until you listen to me. And yourself." Sero places the plate of sweets on their little wooden coffee table with its uneven legs and holds onto the smaller man's shoulders, rubbing the sleeves of his sky-blue duty scrub suit in what seems to be an attempt to comfort him. "You… you're just as talented as they are, okay? I mean, have you tasted the things you've made for me over the years? You could give them a run for their money, if you want-"

"No, I cannot…"

"Yes you can, I don't get why you think you're no good-"

"Because I went to nursing school, Sero-kun, not culinary school." Yuuga sighs. He straightens out his scrub suit and avoids Sero's earnest eyes. "Y… you may not think that it matters, but it does… who would go to a poor little ICU nurse for cheeses and pastries, when they can go to Chef Monoma Neito's? Or even Chef Satou Rikido's?"

They've had this conversation perhaps a hundred times before, and the sting of his words feel as sharp as ever. It's the same cycle of insecurities, of course. Rich boy Aoyama Yuuga, who has always loved cheeses and pastries and sparkly things, who cannot make it into hero school he isn't even interested in, is pressured by his family outside of his precious _maman_ to go into nursing school instead. Somehow he fumbles through the difficult training and the difficult board exams, and somehow lands himself a job as an ICU nurse in one of the busiest government hospitals in :

And while he genuinely loves helping people, genuinely loves working with all the prestigious physicians in the hospital, including their steadfast, decisive, and super intense neuro-intensivist Dr. Iida Tenya, there's a void in his heart that doesn't go away after the endless tiring shifts and glittering commendations from the nursing staff.

"Besides… I suppose I'm living the dream right now." He holds one of Sero's oversized hands, roughened and dried from frequently using antiseptics. "I've a stable, honorable job. I help out both heroes and civilians who would otherwise suffer without us. And I'm living with a person I love very much. I could not ask for more, truly."

"Yeah, but…" Sero sighs again, unease evident as he rubs the back of his neck with his hand. "It's… _a_ dream, but it's not _your_ dream, you know? I mean, I went into pediatric nursing 'cause I wanted to, right at the start, but ever since I've known you, you've always had a different dream than me…"

Yuuga shrugs. "Well… dreams are wind. It won't pay our bills or do anything important like that…"

"But they do." Sero looks at him meaningfully again, holds on to his smaller hand a little tighter, rubs his thumb thoughtfully. "Have you seen yourself when you're in the kitchen, Ao? 'Cos I have, like maybe a thousand or so times, and I gotta tell ya…"

Yuuga freezes and blushes a bit when he feels Sero's finger tilt his chin upward, to keep their eyes level. He feels his face warm as he stares into dark eyes.

"You don't twinkle as much as when you're doing the things you really love." Sero gives him a shining smile with the brightness of the milky way, which has the effect of a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon on Yuuga's bloodstream. "And a guy like you needs to sparkle all the time, right?"

" _Oui,_ I suppose," stammers Yuuga, a little flustered at the way his heart started to beat out of his chest at Sero's words, "But what good is twinkling, if…"

"If nothing." Sero doesn't stop looking right into his eyes. There's a determined grin working its way into his Cheshire mouth as he continues, "Leave it to me, Ao. We'll save up, get you a nicer, bigger kitchen than the one we have right now… we'll get you all the things you need to bake-"

"Wh-what?" Yuuga is stammering again, awkwardly laughing as Sero starts gesticulating, his wide arms smoothing out imaginary ovens and counter tops and pantries.

"-all those fancy-ass cheeses and chocolates from Belgium or France or wherever you want! Everything that your little French derriere needs to keep the sparkle going!"

The blonde boy laughs heartily. And he can't help himself, his eyes start to leak. As Sero continues to ramble on about the small details, like investing and getting suppliers and such, he puts his forehead onto the taller man's shoulder and starts to breathe in.

Sero smells like alcohol and pine needles and warmth. When he holds him closer, he smells the tang of oranges and the sweet, bitter smell of the fancy Belgian chocolates he tempered carefully in his own two hands. Yuuga smiles as he feels the other boy's heart beating against his ear, as he buries himself in his chest.

"So don't worry about it, okay? I'll do whatever it takes to keep the dream going."

Yuuga sniffles a little, despite the joy overflowing through him, and nods quietly. Sero said that he doesn't sparkle as much as he does when he's in the kitchen, but right there and then is the sparkliest he's ever felt himself be.

* * *

 **AN:** So I didn't intend this to be part of the coffee shop AU at first-it was supposed to be a canon-compliant story until I thought that a pot session with these two is kinda lame. I rewrote everything this morning. Sorry if it's a little rushed and it's totally late hahaha, sigh, another one on my to-rewrite-probably pile.

In this AU (which is getting more and more details omg wth am I doing), Sero is a pediatric nurse. He works at Dr. Orca's ward. One of the residents there is Midoriya, who's doing his fellowship as a pediatric surgeon :) he likes what he does and he works hard at his job-he'll probably work harder to get a promotion as a nursing manager to help out Aoyama with his dreams hehe

Aoyama, as mentioned, is a capable ICU nurse, working at the neuro intensive care unit with Iida, who's a fellow. He used to be a rich kid but he abandoned his family because of different values, and now he's living in a small apartment near Hosu General with Sero. Can just imagine how high stress his job is omg! What he loves to do tho is baking, but he isn't trained at all like Monoma and Satou, which is why he's insecure about his hobby. Hopefully he works out his issues and gets the courage to do what he loves!

The other characters are gonna make an appearance in the next cafe/hospital AU oneshot. I hope you like them lol


	19. Day 19 - Proposal - IidaMomo

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 19 - Proposal - IidaMomo

 _This is an epilogue to one of my works in progress entitled "The Clumsy Square and the Lady Fair," an IidaMomo-centric quirkless AU roughly based on Densha Otoko/Trainman. The rough draft of 1/2 of the first chapter (if you're interested) is found on my tumblr. (junionigiri . tumblr . com)_

 _Recommended soundtrack: Someday My Prince Will Come (arrangement by Yoko Kanno, performed on the Kids On The Slope soundtrack) - it's on youtube :)_

* * *

Iida Tenya, twenty-three years old, is a man who likes plans. He likes making outlines, lists, layouts, meticulous schedules. He likes watching all his planning come into orderly fruition in front of him.

He also likes back-up plans on most days, but for this particular project, he finds that none of his back-up plans will work. Perhaps he hasn't planned everything thoroughly enough-after all, just conceiving the plan itself is one of the most nerve wracking things he's ever done in his life.

Granted, he has had enough assistance, mostly from his brother Tensei and Koichi-kun, who helped him secure and prepare the old Iida manor for this very purpose. Midoriya-kun and Todoroki-kun provided their opinion on the best approach to launch his plans, based on their own experience with each other, and also agreed to film the entire exchange. Kaminari-kun, Tokoyami-kun, and Bakugou-kun agreed to provide music for this occasion. And Jirou-kun and Uraraka-kun helped out with the most important part of the plan, which is the woman next to him…

… who is presently soaked to the bone from the sudden downpour of rain. She has his coat on her head as she joins Tenya in rushing from the field, where a picnic is prepared, to the empty house in the middle of the property.

"Almost there, Momo," he bellows through the loud smattering of rain on mud, the splash of puddles.

She nods. Even if his vision is thoroughly muddled by droplets of water and fog on his glasses, he sees her shiver, and struggle through the mud in her wedges. But it's only a hundred meters more, just a little more and there'll be shelter…

They make it to the doorway of the manor. Tenya struggles with the doorknob briefly, and once the great door creaks open, he practically carries the shivering Momo inside.

"Oh my…" she breathes in relief as Tenya closes the door safely behind them. The winds and rain are grey outside the windows, and continue to provide a muffled noise as they ravage the roof and glass. "That rain certainly came out of nowhere, didn't it, Tenya?"

"Yes… out of nowhere," he sighs, with eyes downcast. "The forecast said nothing about this weather."

Yes, this blasted weather that put a damper to all his plans. All those flower arrangements surrounding their picnic spot. The pathway showered with rose petals. The video with all their photos together over the 7 years they're together. The live band, playing Momo's favorite song. The chair she's supposed to sit on after Tenya leads her there. The precise spot where Tenya's supposed to kneel, to bring out the little box from his back pocket, to ask her to spend the rest of her life with him…

Oh, curse this infernal storm! Now he and Momo are uncomfortably damp, on the verge of getting a cold. And he supposes he has to apologize to his friends. He hopes none of their equipment are ruined by the rain.

"It's all right, Tenya." He feels her arms wrap around his torso from behind. Her skin is still cold from the rain, but her breath is warm as he feels it on his skin. "We're both warm and safe and together. That's the most important thing, isn't it?"

Such positivity, Yaoyorozu Momo-kun! The frustration rushing through his veins dissipate in an instant. He turns around and returns her embrace, revels in her warmth. "As always, you know how to lift my spirits, Momo! I feel sufficiently warm in spite of the rain!"

She giggles within his embrace. "You know… I don't hate rainy days myself, Tenya."

"You don't say?"

"Oh, I do say." She looks up at him with a beautiful glimmer in her dark eyes. "This exact same thing happened to us seven years ago."

Seven years ago… oh yes. Now that she mentions it, they've been trapped by the rain before. When they were both sixteen years old, and they were too naive to check the weather forecast. They ended up cold and soaked to the bone. Tenya found her in her arms, beautiful as she's ever been, smelling like rain.

He blushes as he remembers the very first time he clumsily (and quite accidentally) confessed his love for her, and how they shared their first kiss. And now he's a little more frustrated for not preparing for this possibility once more. As he feels his face warm up, he feels the woman in front of him giggle once more.

"I remember that day very clearly too." She leans her head on his shoulder and holds onto him tighter. "In this type of weather, I can't help but remember you. So I really, really love it when it rains."

She sighs in contentment then, and Tenya feels that it's metaphorically enough to warm him for the rest of his days. Oh, how immeasurable his love is for this wonderful woman in his arms!

Yet, it's all metaphorical, and the longer they spend soaked in rainwater, the higher their chances to catch a cold. He kisses her on the forehead once and looks at her in the eyes. "I need to get us dry, else we'll be terribly sick. Wait for me."

Momo nods, and in the next instant he rushes to his old room and methodically picks out towels and some of his old clothes. He hopes that she won't mind the musty smell of his old clothes, and that they're not too loose when she wears them… although, the sight of Momo in any of his clothes is a blessed apparition in itself.

He tries not to blush too hard at the ignominious directions his imagination is going as he picks out two plain tees, two pairs of his old running shorts from his track and field days, and his old UA hoodie for Momo. He rushes downstairs, as fast as his ridiculously large calves can take him, worrying the entire time that Momo has already gotten a deathly chill as she waits for him.

However, when he finally makes it, it's already warm and toasty in the living room. Momo has figured out how to work the radiator, it seems, and has moved on to tinker with the old piano they kept in the salon.

Such a vision she is, with her lovely raven hair down and cascading over her shoulders, clothed in his jacket. Her eyes are closed as her slender fingers fly gracefully over the keys. The melody is contemplative and strangely haunting. Expectant, as if the notes have been waiting all their lives to be played in this random rainy day for Tenya to hear them. They seize his heartstrings as he listens with bated breath.

 _Someday my prince will come…_

It's been years since Momo has overcome her fears of playing jazz, instead of the exquisite classical music that the Yaoyorozu clan has been known for generations. Seven years, to be exact. Momo insists that it's all thanks to Tenya that she gained her courage to really fight for the things that she loves, yet the square boy of seven years ago maintains stubbornly that all the courage has been with her since the beginning.

And now here he is, hearing her play her favorite song in her favorite way, with her entire being shining brightly without restraints, without any second thoughts. Tenya doesn't know what he did in his life to deserve such a wonderful sight.

Momo stops the song midway-this jolts Tenya out of a spell he doesn't know he's under. The woman of his dreams smiles at him warmly and urges him to come closer.

"I'm sorry… I know I shouldn't touch your things without asking," she breathes when he's close enough for her pale hands to grasp the front of his damp button-down shirt lightly, not minding the awkward way it's still clinging to his skin. "But I can't help myself."

Raven eyes focus on blue ones. Those deft, dexterous fingers of hers are beginning to gently unbutton his shirt, from top to bottom. He feels the tips of them brush against the skin of his chest, feels the way his pulse quickens helplessly under her touch.

In return, he carefully brushes the hair out of her face. Cradles her cheeks within his calloused fingers, then slowly hovers them over her neck, the skin of her bare shoulders as he slips his heavy jacket off her and lets it fall to the floor.

All his meticulous plans for what he hoped is the most wonderful day that Yaoyorozu Momo has ever had have gone to waste, it's true. But never mind all that. He's sure that all he'll ever need is right there, in his arms.

"So be it. Then, you'll never have to ask for permission from me again," he hears himself say, before he bends over to claim her soft lips for his own. A curious sound escapes from Momo's mouth at his odd declaration, and when they separate, she stares at him breathlessly.

How silly he is for making so many silly plans, with all its silly trappings and gimmicks, when he knows that all he needs to do is be courageous.

He takes a deep breath, prays that he doesn't stumble foolishly over his words, as he is wont to do in front of the breathtaking Yaoyorozu Momo. "That is, if you're all right with a square-shaped buffoon like me, and all that I am right now, all I'll ever be for you-all that I have is yours, if you want it so."

The next moment, he falls to his knees. He sees Momo's delicate hands fly over her mouth as he fumbles for the little red box waiting in his back pocket.

"That is… Yaoyorozu Momo…" He feels the awkward stuttering of his voice, as he chokes out the words, as his hands tremulously flips the box open to show the modest diamond ring inside, "If you w-w-would spend the rest of my life with me, then…"

He isn't able to finish his sentence before he has to catch Momo, who has thrown herself into his arms. He's alarmed as he feels her smaller body shake in his grasp, but the glorious sight of her face tearing up in absolute joy just about does him in.

"Yes, yes, yes!" she cries as the happy tears keep flowing out of her eyes, as her soft arms curl around his neck. "Yes, Iida Tenya, I love you so much, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, yes, a million times yes!"

Since they've been together, Tenya surmises that he's always been happy, but he never imagined that the encompassing joy he feels when she allows him to slip the ring on her finger and to hold her close like there's nothing else and no-one else in the world, was in any way possible.

He feels tears sting his eyes as he manages out one awkward sentence after another: how happy he is as a man, how honored he is to finally be her fiance. How there are utterly no words in any present vocabularies on the face of this earth to describe the magnitude of the love he holds for her in his silly, square heart. And how much, just how much he is in-love with Yaoyorozu Momo, that even after seven years together he's still in utter disbelief about the right things he did to have her like this.

The rain continues to fall all over the house. They spend the rest of the afternoon encased in warmth, her head on his bare chest, her bejeweled finger entwined in his.

* * *

 **AN:** Ahhhh i made myself melt writing this

I hope I get to finish The Clumsy Square soon - it's one of my fav projects so far but I keep editing and rearranging the story so much that I haven't been able to do it aaaah

I love IidaMomo and I hate that it's a rarepair so here I be making it less rare~


	20. Day 20 - Sweet - AwaMomo

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 20 - Sweet - AwaMomo

 _AN: This ficlet has mentions of PTSD symptoms.  
Also, Friendshipper11 requested for this ages ago ^_^ I hope you like it!_

* * *

The sky is still dark when she steps out onto the concrete sidewalk and stretches her arms. She fills her lungs with cold air, feels the strain on the muscles of her torso as she bends from side to side. She continues to warm up, from her neck, arms, shoulders, trunk, legs, and once she's done, she plugs her ears with her earphones, plays Vivaldi, and runs to the direction of the sunrise.

Yaoyorozu Momo doesn't always wake up before the crack of dawn to run, but here she is, listening to the throb of her pulse and the thud of her footsteps against concrete, ponytail swishing in all directions behind her as she places one foot over the other mechanically. It's something she's discovered recently. There's nothing but blissful silence in her mind as she concentrates on the empty road before her.

And silence-peaceful ones, not the eerie silence of dark nights and empty spaces, of dry heaves and poor appetites and guilt-ridden trains of thought-is what she badly needs right now. She finds herself biting her lower lip each time her mind wanders.

It's nearing the end of summer, and even though it's past five in the morning, light begins to break the dawn. The lamplights dim one by one as the UA campus is slowly bathed in sunlight. Soon she finds herself chasing the sun and the points in the sky where the most intense oranges and pinks begin to bloom.

She slows down her pace and glances at her smart watch. She's a little surprised to see that she's been running for forty-five minutes without stopping-a grand total of six thousand five hundred and thirty steps over 6.7 kilometers. It's only then that she notices how out of breath she is and how her legs suddenly feel like rubber.

The beginnings of nausea begin to irritate her throat. She knows that she probably overdid it today. Well, it's a Saturday, at least she can spend the rest of the time resting in her room and trying in vain to sleep despite the nightmares she's sure to have. She unplugs her ears free of the classical music blaring out from them and hears thudding footsteps from a distance.

Curious, she looks up. The figure comes from the opposite direction of her run, and she's temporarily blinded by the sunlight coming from behind it.

"Yaoyorozu?" the figure asks in between huffs.

She sees strong, steely eyes and zigzags within a mess of spotty colours before she recognizes who it is. "Awase-san…"

Awase Yosetsu slows down into an awkward half-jog as he regards Momo with an odd look in his eyes. He's taking ragged breaths, and judging by how drenched in sweat his UA shirt is, he must have been running for a while too. "You're up early," he tells her a little uneasily.

"I can say the same for you," Momo replies with a little awkward laugh. "I didn't know you ran around here as well, Awase-san."

The lanky boy shrugs. "I only started running recently," he tells her flatly, like it's something unimportant and trivial. Maybe. His voice is a little fuzzy when he speaks, and Momo isn't sure of how his face looks like, with all the spots of light dancing around him. But she doesn't have the energy to think of how strange this is, until she feels a strong hand on her shoulder and sees steely eyes staring back at her with concern.

"Hey. Are you okay, Yaoyorozu?" she hears him say. Thick eyebrows under red and blue and purple zigzags knit together. The static doesn't go away.

"Hm? I'm fine," she breathes-and realizes then how out of breath she sounds. "I just-probably need to sit down-"

She feels her body fall limply to the ground, and something made of solid muscle break her fall. She's slumping against something warm and damp, and the smell of salt and musk fills her nostrils.

"Damn-your blood sugar's crashing-" she hears Awase's voice within the static in her head. She's being dragged someways to her left, probably, and she feels herself lolling as she's placed on a cold stone bench, still damp with morning dew.

There's a clicking sound somewhere, and Momo feels her head being tilted back as a cool, odd-tasting liquid flows through her lips and inside her mouth. As her tongue recognizes the mildly sweet taste, she feels the haze in her head dissipate. When she comes to, she finds herself staring into a bottle of Pocari Sweat and Awase's worried face up close.

"So, um. Are you feeling better now?" His face is red, probably from the run. Momo's close enough to see the lines of the capillaries on his cheeks.

"Yes," she breathes back. The spotty colors in her vision organize themselves more sensibly now. The sky's bright blue above his spiky head, and she sees the olive green of his eyes.

"Okay. That's good." He's _really close_. He's holding on to her face, mumbling something about the color finally coming back to her as he looks at the flesh under her eyes. He pushes some strands of her hair back, the ones sticking to her face, and she feels the calluses on his hands as he does so. So many odd sensations in her chest, swimming in her belly, but she isn't sure if it's just nausea at this point. She doesn't understand very quickly what's going on, just that her face is beginning to feel really warm.

He probably feels how warm it is, since he slowly pulls back his hand from her red face. She's a little embarrassed, true, but her mind's too busy struggling to keep up with reality that she doesn't move her head back. He clears his throat. "You almost fainted back there. You haven't been eating well at all, haven't you?"

"No, I haven't…" Momo answers softly. She isn't alert enough to lie at this point. Semi-consciously, she curls her soft arms around her belly, where there's barely any fat left from how little she's been eating these past few weeks.

"Doesn't look like you've been sleeping, either."

"Not at all, no."

She hears him exhale softly. His breath is also warm, and she feels it on the skin of her cheek. "Yeah, me neither."

She tries to process his words and only succeeds at blinking at him when she sees that he's standing up and holding out his hand.

"Awase-san?"

She doesn't immediately move, only stares dumbly at the hand that had carressed her face all over. Perhaps, upon staring at the odd look on her face, he makes an amused noise. "You can stand up now, right? Or do I have to weld myself to you again?"

She knows that he's just teasing-there's a playful glint to his eyes as he grins at her sudden inability to speak. She turns red the next moment when he takes the initiative by reaching out for her hand instead.

He doesn't weld his hand onto hers, contrary to his little joke, but his grip on her is strong and sure. All it takes is a tug of one strong arm and Momo is up on her feet. She's a little taller than him, true, but she feels a little smaller, a little more delicate when his other arm shoots out to make sure she's steady enough to stand on her own.

"Okay, you're good," Awase says with a comforting smile, when he's sure that Momo won't collapse like the final stages of a Jenga game. "Let's go."

She makes a little surprised noise as the spiky-haired boy leads her by the hand in the direction opposite to the dorms. Confused, she stares at the receding faces of Heights Alliance before looking at the back of his broad shoulders. "Awase-san, where are we going?"

He hums a little before answering, "Gotta make sure you eat something before you go home, Yaoyorozu. I don't want you crashing on your way back to the 1-A dorm."

"... all right," she relents weakly, focusing her eyes instead on their hands, linked naturally and hanging in the space between them. She doesn't know if he's doing it because he's worried that she might fall over herself again, but he doesn't show signs of loosening his grip.

It's surprisingly… not unpleasant. In fact, Momo squeezes his hand a little, as if to make sure that she's awake and alert this time, and she feels him squeeze back.

Soon, they reach one of the cafes within the campus. It's one of the smaller ones that Momo's always wanted to try, but was too shy to ask anyone to come with her - she just knew that she'd look overexcited about trying something that was mundane for others, but entirely new to her, and she really doesn't want to be called a 'boujee' again.

Luckily, Awase doesn't seem to know about all that. He pulls out a chair for her, makes sure that she's nice and settled before telling her not to move while he orders for the both of them at the counter. He doesn't even give her a chance to offer paying for anything before he turns his back on her.

She tries to keep her head from spinning as she ponders upon the surreal turn of events of that morning, from almost collapsing on the street, to being rescued, to holding hands with a boy all the way to a cafe and even being _treated_ to breakfast… by the same boy.

She shakes her head. No, it's only a coincidence that it somehow suddenly sounds like a date. Yet the idea's implanted in her head, and it suddenly becomes a struggle to keep her face from looking too much like an overheated tomato when Awase comes back with a tray of their breakfast…

No, scratch that, make that two trays. Awase has welded his hands underneath each one, stacked with sausages, pancakes, omelets, and croissants on one and coffees and two slices of chocolate cake on the other. She feels her jaw drop as he un-welds the trays and place them all in front of her.

"I heard from Kendo that you need to eat a lot for your quirk," is all he says when she gives him a questioning look.

"But Awase-san, I can't just accept all of this… At least let me pay-"

"No, don't," he tells her flatly, sinking into the seat across her without a second thought. "I figured it's about time someone treated you to something other than the other way around, right?"

She makes a sound of refusal again, but all Awase does is hand her a fork. He doesn't move it from in front of her, and even starts munching on a sausage nonchalantly until she relents.

She supposes it's a good thing that she eventually accepts his offer, because she doesn't realize how hungry she is until the tastes of meat and butter and sweet, sweet syrup flood her mouth. Before she knows it, she's closing her eyes, impassioned by the marvelous medley of flavors in her mouth. As she swallows down bite after bite, she feels her energy returning to her, like a fully charged battery.

It's only when she daintily swallows the last bit of pancake and sees Awase's amused stare from across her that she realizes that she hasn't eaten like this in a while. "Kendo wasn't kidding," he says with a grin.

She flushes a little as she takes a tiny sip of coffee. "Kendo-san isn't the type to make jokes about things like this. Please don't tease me," she says, with as much dignity as one can muster after they've polished off the equivalent of three breakfasts in one sitting.

"I'm not teasing you," Awase says, as he pushes one of the chocolate cake slices closer to her. "I'm relieved, actually. If you didn't finish it, I'd have to eat all of that myself."

She stares at the cake curiously. At the risk of being impolite, she ponders about asking him if it's a normal, middle-class thing to eat cake for breakfast, like he's doing now at his side of the table. "Why would you say that?"

He hums again and wipes dark brown crumbs from the corner of his mouth. "I dunno. When I saw you running at an insanely early hour like I was, I was sure that we had the same problem."

She tilts her head curiously. He isn't looking at her, but there's a pensive look in his eyes when she asks, "The same problem?"

He sighs, rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. He sounds reluctant when he finally answers, "You know… problems sleeping. Eating. Getting back to normal. Things like that…"

"Oh," Momo answers not-so-eloquently, flustered that he's able to describe the troubles of the past week to her so succinctly. Have her sleepless nights and early mornings been apparent to everyone else? Has she lost so much weight that even the students from the neighboring sections noticed too?

And she wants to slap herself, because of course she isn't the only one suffering from the incident. Now that Awase has admitted that much to her, she begins to notice the dark circles around his eyes, and how leaner he looked since their time in the forest. And suddenly it's clear to her why he had happened to be there too, when she almost fell on the street.

A strange surge of honesty wells up within her, and she couldn't stop the words from tumbling out her mouth the next moment. "I have nightmares, Awase-san," she says, her voice cracking like eggshells under a slab of heavy concrete. "Of the forest and of Camino ward and of the dark. Most of the time, I die-like, I _feel_ the blood leave my forehead and my stomach, I actually feel gunshots and stab wounds and fire razing my skin. I see bodies around me after I've died, and I know all of them. Midoriya-san, Iida-san, Todoroki-san and Kirishima-san… Sometimes, Bakugou-san is there too, and-"

She feels a hand on hers, just as she feels traitorous hot tears stain her cheeks. She looks up at Awase, who only nods and keeps the connection between them. She continues.

"S-sometimes though, I don't die," she says, her voice dropping an octave, heavy with guilt. "Sometimes, I'm alive, a worthless girl who can't use her legs or her brain, and… and Awase-san…"

An ugly, undignified sound wants to escape from her throat. She clasps her mouth shut with her free hand.

"Hey." Awase's voice tries to be comforting as he squeezes his hand over hers. But she doesn't have the courage to look into his eyes, not when she remembers how close to death the two of them were because she was too weak to run. Her nightmares have reminded her time and again about that terrible fact.

"Yaoyorozu, I can't imagine what you guys have been through, but…" There's hesitation in his voice too, when he finally speaks, and Momo also feels his struggle to find the right words to say. "You're not the only one, okay? I get them too. Believe me."

A weird sound comes out of his throat, something that sounds both like an awkward laugh and a sigh. Momo looks up at him and sees his unreadable expression. "That is, I mean… sometimes I wake up and wonder if I was really able to get us out of that forest alive, you now. You have no idea how… how scared I was-I _am,_ still, how close we got, how I wasn't able to do anything else for you-"

"Awase-san…"

"But, you know-I'm not saying that it's just a dream, that it's not fucked up that this kinda shit happens in the first place, but…" There's still something unreadable in his eyes, momentarily shadowed by the oversized headband on his forehead as he taps his fingers against his arm and searches the surface of the table for some semblance of clarity. Momo's able to see that there are deep eye bags under his dark eyes as well, clear evidence of the same nightmares that have been plaguing her for the past few nights.

"But," he finally manages, looking at her straight in the eye, "no matter how fucked up my dreams are… when I see you in the morning in your classroom next door, I know that they're just dreams."

He gives her a small smile then, something gentle and full of relief, somehow full of gratitude that she _isn't_ dead, that she's there in front of him, just breathing. Just existing. Momo is made aware again of the feel of his rough hand on hers when it lingers there for a few more moments before he pulls back, and she feels the chill of empty air.

"So… yeah… I know what I said probably don't mean much, since I'm not a shrink and all, but-"

Momo probably isn't thinking very critically when she cuts off Awase quite rudely by reaching over the table and embracing him fully. But she doesn't feel as ashamed as she ought to, not when she's able to feel how warm and very much _alive_ he is, and how loudly his pulse is suddenly throbbing against her ear, and how he awkwardly gives in to the hug eventually. She inhales, and she takes in the sweet smell of the chocolate cake he's eaten just moments before.

"Awase-san… thank you," she tells him very honestly after they pull apart.

He blushes quite furiously and is still visibly astonished when he forms a reply. It's quite endearing. "Y… yeah. It's nothing." He clears his throat and again, pushes the chocolate cake closer to her side of the table. "Anyway… eat up, won't you? I don't want you crashing on me again. Don't make it a habit."

She laughs easily at this. "I'll try not to. But I think I won't crash, since you fed me so much! Besides… cake for breakfast?"

He shrugs. "I like sweets. And you look like you do, too."

So maybe it isn't a normal thing to have cake for breakfast, after all. Nothing about what had happened these past few days was normal and fine. The things that happened this morning isn't normal either, but at least the two of them are alive and well and trying to make things better for each other.

Awase is staring at her with that piercing gaze of his, until she reaches out for her fork and takes a nice, sweet bite.

* * *

 **AN:** After this, Momo and Awase become jogging buddies (Awase insists on it to make sure that she's okay) and have regular breakfasts together in that cafe ^_^


	21. Day 21 - CoffeeShopAU - BakuMomo

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 21 - Coffee Shop AU - BakuMomo

 _AN: Part 1 of the Cafe/Hospital AU. Can I really make this into a cohesive story? Lols_

* * *

Yaoyorozu Momo is tired. Although to say 'tired' is a severe understatement. Right now, though, she doesn't even have the mental faculties to think of a better word to describe the state that she's in.

A recap of the past 24 hours is as follows: Five brain surgeries, three of them emergencies, all of them on patients with mutation quirks that made their anatomies vastly different. A report on the genetics of brain cancer. An audit on the people that died or had gotten worse while in the wards. The looming in-service examinations for neurosurgery residents. And finally, just two hours, forty-five minutes of sleep for the past twenty-four hours, interrupted by calls from the ER. Momo would appreciate anyone who can give her a word precise and astute enough to describe how very… 'tired' she felt.

She has just hobbled out of the Hosu General Hospital, over six hours overtime, with her fellow resident Todoroki Shouto-kun taking over her shift and shooing her away. Now she's lugging her large neurosurgery textbook under one arm, using her last remaining brain cells to figure out any decent place to have coffee and read her book until she collapses from exhaustion.

She hums thoughtfully as she stares at the complex of restaurants outside the hospital. Her favorite place, Satou's Coffees and Cakes, is unfortunately closed on Sundays. Monoma's _Boulangerie et Pattiserie_ also has decent coffee, but it's five blocks away. There's nothing nearby but convenience stores and fastfood joints in front of her.

Really, she'd really rather not compromise her sense of taste just for a much needed shot of caffeine. Call her a 'boujee', if one must (and one Uraraka Ochako, OR nurse and her frequent assist, does frequently). Good, handcrafted brews usually come at a high price.

And right now there's nowhere that serves any decent liquid form of caffeine. She sighs. Perhaps it's better to head back to her apartment and brew herself a cup there, even though just thinking about making it and cleaning up after herself afterward is so, very tiring.

As she begins to walk to the direction of her condominium, she sees him for the first time.

She doesn't know why he catches her eye in a fine Sunday morning such as this. Perhaps because he's scowling so hard while wiping down the tables in front of the small cafe so aggressively that she worries he'll destroy them. Perhaps it's also the steady stream of expletives against germs and dirt that would give the Infectious Control services a run for their money.

Perhaps it's also how the man looks, which is very distinctive. Fluffy, blonde hair that goes in all directions. Red eyes that remind Momo not of blood clots (which she's had enough of), but of rubies. A nice pair of arms, with cuts of muscles that move nicely as he works on destroying the table with a dishrag. The front of his body is covered by a large, blue apron, but the doctor surmises that behind it is a nice, sturdy body to match those nice, sturdy arms. He isn't any taller than her, but he looks more than able to carry her in his arms and to throw her against-

Her surprisingly debauched, sleep-deprived thoughts are jarringly interrupted by the man's bark. "Oi, the fuck are you staring at?"

She's suddenly face-to-face with the explosive blonde. Yes, explosive is the perfect adjective to describe him, his fiery eyes and hunkering gait. His jaw juts out forward as he continues his annoyed grumbling, much like one of the grumpy English bulldogs Momo's kin kept back at the family estate.

"Oi, I'm talking to you, Ponytail. Fuckin' staring at me like I'm a circus freak." He jabs a finger at her shoulder, and she doesn't even resist against its push. Now up close, Momo catches a whiff of caramel from his body, and she's not sure if it's a comically sweet body spray or his quirk.

She's appalled by his unruly behavior and lack of manners, of course. Furthermore, she did _not_ just suffer through four years of medical school and one year of grueling internship and three plus plus plus years of even more grueling neurosurgery residency to be baptized as merely _Ponytail._ She has all intentions of forming an intelligent, indignant remark, all aiming to improve his utterly repulsive conduct. "Excuse me? That's-that's Dr. Ponytail to you!"

The blonde clicks his tongue in annoyance and doesn't back down. Maybe because despite how strong her comeback sounds in her head, it still comes out weak and kind of breathy, like she's on the verge of a coma. "The hell's wrong with you? Is your brain still inside your fucking skull, or did you leave it behind in the fuckin' hospital?"

Momo holds her head in reflex. Wait, did she really just check if her brain was still there? Silly Momo, of course it'd still be there, if both her cerebral and cerebellar hemispheres and her brainstem aren't there, then she wouldn't be standing here, dumbly staring at this angry, attractive man as his abhorrent, stupidly attractive mouth dishes out one verbal abuse after another.

There's a few seconds where the man stops talking and just stares at her with an unreadable expression in those ruby-red eyes. "Hey, I'm serious, do I gotta take you to the ER or something, Ponytail? I mean, Dr. Ponytail or whatever the fuck your name is."

He's beginning to reach out for her shoulder, perhaps in an attempt to steady her, but she moves away. Internally, she tries to shake off her sudden empty-headedness and straightens her posture, in what she hopes is a dignified stance. "I apologize. It's rude of me to stare at you as you're doing your job," she manages to say without slurring.

"Yeah, no shit." Still, the man's visibly relieved that she's finally acting like a responsive human being. She notices his eyes run over her from top-to-bottom, side-to-side. "Hosu General Neurosurgery," he says flatly, as if making a show of how unimpressed he is of her 'prestigious' occupation.

There's a moment of bewilderment when she wonders how he knew, followed by a mental face-palm as she realizes that she's still wearing her rumpled scrub suit, still unchanged from the past duty.

"Must have been a long fuckin' night, huh." He scowls for a few moments, thinking deeply. Next moment he's clicking his tongue in annoyance. "Come on," is all he says before stomping his way into the cafe.

Momo manages a confused "Oh," before she follows him. The signage still reads 'Closed', and the man doesn't flip it to the other side.

The doctor looks around the cafe. It's not large, and the ceilings are a little low, but the interiors look thoughtful and cozy and warm and she instantly feels better than she has when she left the hospital. Hues of warm oranges and browns meet her eyes and make her think of autumn. Paintings of what look like fireworks and other miscellaneous explosions hang neatly over the wood-paneled walls. White block letters are displayed at the front counter, spellin E.

 _Odd name for a cafe, but it fits such an explosive barista._ As if to prove her point, the man growls at her to sit her ass down anywhere she likes. She gives him the best poisonous look that her tired visage can muster before she obliges.

She picks one of the desks a few steps away from the bar, and from her spot she once again stares at him as he works. A symphony of odd noises from the machines around him accompany his smooth movements. Momo is able to see the back of his broad shoulders, visibly flexing from within his tight black shirt as he tinkers with something or the other. Sees the intense look of concentration in those striking red eyes as he measures liquids in tiny little graded cups. She wonders passively if she's ever watched anyone make coffee before, and if anyone should look so attractive making coffee the way he's doing it then…

Oh, lord. She isn't just staring. She's _ogling_ at him. _Lecherously._ Sleep deprivation hasn't hit her this hard before. She turns away, hopefully before he notices.

She opens up her book and desperately tries to read something. Or at least, desperately tries to pretend to read something. She reads the same sentence about lymphomas over and over until she sees his lean figure enter her peripheral vision.

He sets a glass on a coaster in front of her wordlessly. "Drink," is all he says, when she looks up at him questioningly.

If she's being honest, she wants to tell him that every cell in her body is aching for a cup of warm coffee. A steaming one in a tasteful ceramic mug, as black as her hair, perhaps with a spoonful of muscovado sugar if she feels like it. Something comfortable to gently let her down from the light-headed somnolence taking over her brain.

But the coffee set in front of her is cold, with a fine layer of foam above it. She wonders if it's actually a glass of beer, until she takes in the sweet, coffee scent. She catches herself on time, thankfully-she almost gave in to the impulse of wrinkling her nose in distaste.

She supposes that the most polite thing to do for this man who's been cussing at her all morning is to at least take a sip of what seems to be his peace offering. So she does-gently, she takes a sip of the drink, and feels her mind… awaken.

 _Oh my goodness._ As the liquid touches her tongue, she feels all her senses snap awake, like a splash of cold water on a hot day. A hint of sweetness fills her mouth, but she's able to detect that isn't from added sugar or dairy. It's foamy and suave, so much so that Momo can't help a satisfied noise escape from her throat at the first swallow.

Hearing the noise, the blonde man gives her a self-satisfied smirk. "That good, huh, Dr. Ponytail?"

"Yes-this is marvelous," she tells him honestly, after daintily patting her upper lip free of foam. "The coffee's crisp, naturally creamy. If I had to guess, it's from the nitrogen you infused in the drink? It's very elegantly done. From my first sip, I'm able to ascertain a higher coffee-to-water ratio, but it's not bitter at all. The beans that you used are exquisite, if I had to guess, probably Arabica, or something from Southeast Asia… I suppose, given the name of your cafe, this is your house specialty?"

There's a very small flicker of astonishment she sees in his eyes as she gives her honest appraisal of the coffee, but in the next moment he's back to being irritatingly smug. "You got that right, brainy. Although I named this joint NTG 'cause of my quirk, not 'cause of my coffee."

Momo hums in understanding. "So… you have a nitroglycerin quirk?"

He holds his hand up, shows off the slight sheen of his sweat over his skin. He causes harmless, noisy sparks to form from it. So that explains the sweet smell that hangs off him. "As for you… let me guess. Something to do with brains, I bet."

She gives him a little teasing smile. "I don't have a mentalist quirk, if that's what you're saying."

"Nah. You don't strike me as one of those mindfuckers." He leers at her intensely, as if reading a particularly engaging thriller. She feels her cheeks redden under his gaze, and feels an impulse to train her eyes elsewhere.

After what seems like forever, he gives a low grumble that tickles her ears. "Might be a materialization quirk, I bet. Or something that lets you manipulate structures and shit."

Her eyes widen in surprise. He smirks in response. "I'll take that as a fuck yes. And before you ask, yes, I am a fuckin' genius, myself."

She pouts at him. "But how could you have guessed that? I didn't use my quirk around you. At all. Unless… you're stalking me?!"

He snaps at her. "Who's fuckin' stalking who?! You're the one who stood staring at me like a mouth-breather!"

Valid comeback, but it doesn't ease her discomfort. She's painfully reminded of one of the patients she'd seen as a first year resident-a small, purple-haired guy with a sticky-hair quirk who they needed to see after he was beaten up for peeking in the women's lockers of a local gym. Just remembering it makes her give in to the impulse to push her seat a little farther from the blonde barista, who has the gall to look as offended as she feels. "You say that, but I've been through awful things before. And you aren't answering my question, _Nitro_."

The man clicks his tongue in annoyance. "Geez. Whatever. Fuck." He rubs his face, as if it's too early for such bold accusations, and grumbles out, "You got the instinct for breaking down the components of something. That's what material quirk users tend to do. Believe me, I know a freak who fucks around with fabrics and shit, and every time he touches cloth he'd go on and on about textiles and shit."

Oh. That makes sense. Momo visibly relaxes and releases a breath from her relieved lungs. "I see… Well… I suppose you aren't a stalker after all, Barista-san."

Fabrics and shit - that's like her senior consultant, Dr. Hakamata. AKA Best Jeanist, the acclaimed neurosurgeon whose unparalleled genius, strict work ethic, and seamless sutures both inside and outside of the brain, have saved many a person's life.

Also, the most toxic of all her consultants in the hospital. She thinks he's brilliant, but just the sight of blue jeans makes her and even Todoroki go into arrhythmia. She tries to shake off that image from her head and focuses instead on the exquisite coffee, and the grumpy blonde sitting in front of her with his teeth bared.

"Yeah. There's only one stalker in here, and it sure ain't me." He says this with an annoyingly self-satisfied smirk though. Before Momo can retort, the bell chimes from the door.

"Bakugou?" A melodic voice calls from the entrance. Momo watches as a smaller woman with dark hair, dark eyes, elongated earlobes, and an asymmetric fringe makes a show of freezing mid-stride. "Um… am I _that_ late? I didn't know we opened this early on Sundays."

The man- _Bakugou,_ Momo repeats in her head, smiling a little at how appropriate his name is for his larger-than-life personality-snarls at the employee. Really, can this man speak normally without making any dog-like sounds? "We ain't open yet, fuckin' Ears! Just that Ponytail here's gonna die on the street if I didn't give her coffee! And to answer your question, you're fucking late, since I got here before you."

Despite the verbal lashings, the girl doesn't seem fazed in any shape or form. She shrugs off her leather jacket, showing off toned arms covered in tattoos, and puts her hand out in front of Momo. "So I guess you're a special customer, Doc? I'm Jirou, I'm one of the part-timers here. Please ignore my stupid-ass boss. We're happy to serve you."

Momo smiles as politely as she can and takes her hand. "I'm Yaoyorozu Momo. But please, call me Momo. I work at Hosu Gen. And don't worry, I'm enjoying myself here."

"That's good. I'm real worried that we won't get any customers if we let our very _polite_ cafe owner interact with the masses," she says, nudging her grumpy boss at the shoulder, "so I'm relieved that you're too spaced-out to be offended by this guy, Yaomomo."

Momo laughs heartily at her remark. She doesn't mind also being called _Yaomomo_ -somehow, the playful name fits her, and fits the other girl's personality for thinking of that. She has a feeling that she'll like Jirou very much. "Oh, I'm offended enough, but thank you for your concern."

"Whatever, Dr. Ponytail," grumbles Bakugou under his breath. He stands up and almost pokes Jirou in her eyes with two fingers. "You. Start prepping the damn place. I gotta go in the office to do accounting shit."

Jirou sarcastically salutes him like the world's most reluctant soldier and leaves to dress up for work. Bakugou then turns his ruby-red eyes to Momo. "And you. Wouldn't stand up if I were you. Just sit your ass down and drink up for as long as you need to."

"A… all right," stammers Momo, unsure if what came out of his mouth was an order, a threat, or a concerned plea. She watches as his strong figure moves towards the back of the counter, pulls off the apron over his head - oh lord, that small bit of his back that she sees when he lifts his arms up are made of pure muscle - and disappears into the office.

"So, Yaomomo-"

Momo yelps and whips her head to Jirou, who is now dressed in her barista regalia, consisting of a simple white collared shirt, jeans, and a similar navy blue apron. Somehow, the girl's already got a broom out, ready to prepare for the day, and Momo hasn't even noticed. Wait, how long has she been staring at Bakugou again?

"I see you're enjoying the view," continues Jirou, with an absolutely mischievous grin on her face, one that can only be described as _shit-eating_ , if Momo allowed herself to use such vulgarities.

Momo covers her face in shame. Has she been that obvious? And since when has she picked up this unseemly habit of ogling? "Oh, I'm so embarrassed…" she mumbles. "It's just, I _don't_ see that type of thing a lot outside the hospital, so…"

Yes, that must be it. It's not that the staff of Hosu Gen are filled with unattractive people. Far from it, actually-some tabloids have made a feature about how unfairly attractive the doctors of their hospital are (admittedly, it's not very good journalism). Todoroki-kun, who doesn't show his face outside of work, even has a fan page made by his very enthusiastic patients. But seeing them everyday, under harsh and stressful conditions, doesn't do anything for Momo's interest in dating or even just a sense of attraction.

Jirou snorts, interrupting her flow of thought. "I get it. Baku-boss isn't bad looking. Even I, a screaming lesbian, can attest to that as much. It's just too bad he's a nuke waiting to happen. Hey, maybe you should check out his brain or something-maybe there's something there you have to chop off to make him… you know, _not_ like that?"

Momo giggles. "You have a good point, Jirou-san!"

"I fucking heard that-get the fuck back to work, Ears!" bellows Bakugou from the office at the back.

Momo and Jirou look at each other and break out into muffled giggles. "Anyway, he's right. I should get back to work," the girl says, brandishing her broom in mock enthusiasm. "I also agree that you probably need to sit down as long as you like, Doc. I can tell that you just went through a tough tour of duty."

"That bad?"

"Yeah." Jirou raises her eyebrows and gives another salute. "We're opening in a bit, so I hope it won't be too messy. Say bye to us before you go home, okay?"

"All right," Momo says, giving the blunt barista a little wave before she leaves her alone to do prep work. The young doctor then turns her attention back to the long-neglected neurosurgery textbook in front of her, and continues to struggle through the chapters.

Later, the cafe opens, and people start to mill about all around her. There aren't many people coming in-it's a Sunday morning after all, and the cafe is relatively new, so nothing and no-one stops her from nodding off in her seat. She's finished the nitro cold brew by this time, and as refreshing as it is, all the exhaustion of the past week catches up to her. By what must be the fifteenth time her forehead hits the wooden surface of the desk, she smells caramel near her before she feels a not-so-gentle prod at her back.

She sits up, bleary-eyed, and stares at the explosive barista-no, cafe owner, who's frowning down at her. "Oi, Ponytail. I think it's time you went home."

"Mmhm," she replies quite eloquently, rubbing her eyes. "I'm not done studying yet…"

"If I let your stubborn ass study any longer, your brain's gonna bleed out from hitting one of my tables." He isn't wearing his work clothes, she realizes, when he pulls her to her feet and grabs the heavy textbook from her. "Oi, Ears. You're in charge while I'm gone. The place better be standing when I get back."

"You got it, Baku-boss," Jirou calls out nonchalantly. She looks up briefly and gives Momo a knowing smile before she writes out a name on a paper cup.

In the next moment, Bakugou is holding on to her arm quite roughly and is dragging her out of her seat. "B-Bakugou-san? What are you doing?" Momo manages to stammer out as he leads them out of the cafe.

"I'm kickin' you out of the premises, is what," he tells her gruffly as they reach the street. "Doctor or not, people aren't allowed to pass out in my damn cafe. I don't like taking paying customers to the fuckin' ER. Now, where do you live?"

"I-what?"

He makes an annoyed sound with his tongue and glares at her. "I need to make sure you get home without hurting your ass, _Doc._ Fuckin' hell, doctors are the worst when it comes to taking care of themselves…"

There's some animosity when he says the line about doctors. Momo wonders about this briefly before having second thoughts, and instead saying, "Oh, you don't have to, really-"

Bakugou glares at her, teeth bared, with all the rage of a hungry wild animal who has had his meat stolen from him. "What, you think I'll fucking stalk you or some shit like that? I though I've established that I'm _not_ interested in you that way-"

"It's not that," Momo says, gritting her teeth a little for patience. "It's just that… we're literally a stone's throw away from my home."

She points to a particularly tall building a block away from where they're standing-a residential complex built especially for doctors who need to be close to Hosu Gen for emergencies. It's a little run-down, and the space isn't as big as Momo is used to, but it's convenient enough that she can sleep in a few precious minutes longer than if she lived in the Yaoyorozu Manor, which is four stations away.

Seeing the ridiculous proximity to his own cafe, Bakugou scowls and mutters something about her not saying so earlier. "Then get your ass the fuck back home, Dr. Ponytail. Ain't moving from here til I see you there."

"All right. That's nice of you, Bakugou-san." Momo gives him an amused smile. Odd that this barista, who gave her hell for breathing in the same space as him just a couple of hours before, is suddenly acting like a decent human being. Maybe Jirou's right-there might be a switch inside his brain somewhere that needs to be rewired or something.

Bakugou only gives an annoyed _tch_ and does a shooing motion. Momo takes this as her cue to start walking.

When she reaches the lobby and turns around, she sees Bakugou from a distance, still hulking about outside his cafe with his hands in his pockets. She gives him a quiet wave of a hand and a grateful smile. He just nods gruffly and goes back to the cafe without another word or gesture, as if she doesn't exist.

 _Well. Isn't he a rude one,_ thinks Momo as she makes her way to inside the condominium unit with a little annoyed scowl. Yet, when the guard asks her if something good happened today, she's able to give a little smile and what the guard says is a mysterious twinkle in her eye.

When she wakes up from her duty-induced coma in the next sixteen hours, she makes up her mind to visit the NTG Cafe again.

* * *

 **AN:** Okay so this is where all those hospital and cafe AUs are coming from. You'd think I'd make Bakugou the doctor but nooo lol~ this was actually fun to write, but I'm running out of time so I just rushed the ending right there... I do want this to be a long, slow-burn affair but... yeah~~~~

Also this is the second story where Momo's treated to free food by someone, and the fourth story completing the four horsemen of the Momo Rarepairocalypse series lol (KendoMomo, IidaMomo, AwaMomo and BakuMomo) aaah I just love this woman with all my heart okay

There's one last story that will be published this month that's linked to this. I think you'll also find it interesting

If I get my act together I think I can actually make this into a multichapter fic with all the lovely rarepairs one can think of. But that's a big if hahahahaha (ugly sobbing noises)


	22. Day 22 - Fears - BakuSen

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 22 - Fears - BakuSen

 _AN: This fic has mentions of blood and other disturbing unhealthy behaviors (I guess)_

* * *

When they get down to it, as expected, there are great waves of noise crashing against each other, coming from both ends. For him, it's the exhilarating booms and crackles that ring out from the palms of his hands, as he hurls the equivalent of the firepower of ten grenades with one swing of his arm. Rubble falls as the explosions raze a path at the opposite side of the gym.

For his opponent, the noise is different, but not any less; the sound of stone and soil being ground to very fine powder, and the sound of thin air spiraling around him as his entire body spins. The floor vibrates underneath him, and Bakugou feels the ache within his bones, in his clenched teeth. He swings one gyrating arm, sending a cutting gust of wind in his direction.

"Whassa matter? Scared that you'll finally die today, Explodey?" Kaibara Sen taunts, not fazed at all by the AP shot that's missed him by a hair moments ago.

The grin in his enemy's face is manic. Bakugou feels it reflected in his own face as he returns his taunt with a mocking laugh. "Who's scared, drill-fucker? Want to die?"

The dark-haired boy scoffs once. Bakugou barely hears his mutterings about the blonde's 'real original' comeback, and without further warning, charges.

Bakugou sees the moment he leaps into the air and towards him. Not one to be outdone by a theatrical attack, the fiery blonde does the same. They end up meeting in mid-air in a mess of explosions and drills. There are one or two moments where the drill-fucker got too fuckin' close to his carotids-he hissed as the sharp ends of his spinning fingers slipped and cut off parts of his hair and his cheek instead.

When they land on opposite ends, they give themselves barely a moment to regain their bearings. Bakugou swings his right arm, accompanied by the noise of a Howitzer, while Kaibara spins his body low. Again, they barely miss each other. Bakugou sees that he singes one sleeve as it spins at unbelievable speeds, making it catch fire and eat half of the cloth before it dissipates with Kaibara's spinning motion. He feels the cloth from his tank top torn to shreds as Kaibara attempts an uppercut from below.

"Too fucking slow!" Bakugou aims his foot on his face. The sole of his foot hits that pretty dark mug of his with a satisfying sound. Kaibara reels backwards, hand shooting up to his face to stop the blood from spurting from his nose.

In the split second that Bakugou gives him to recover, he sees that the other boy doesn't have any plans of backing down. Through the pain, he's baring his perfectly straight, pretty-boy teeth in a manic grin. His eyes are flashing in what can only be a frenetic excitement, a rush that he rarely feels, if his usual apathetic stank-face is any indication.

Bakugou likes this look on Kaibara, instead of the pretty, soulless, _dead-inside_ expression he has on any given normal day, like there's a permanent bitter taste in his mouth. He'd take this bloodied, fucked-up look any day of the week, at least he looks like he's alive.

They're both breathing like they both ran a marathon, but they still move as if to kill each other. This time, Kaibara manages to push his fuckin' drill fingers into Bakugou's shoulder, making him swear in his face. He actually cuts through the skin, the two of them actually get blood spattered on their faces and clothes, but neither of them give a fuck at this point-all the adrenaline in their bodies make them forget about any fears to keep their bodily integrity intact. In return, he shoves his hand into the guy's bloodied face, making sure that the explosion hits him right where it hurts.

Somehow, he misses; Kaibara's able to spin his torso at an unnatural angle and only gets a sting on his right cheek. The fucker still has his fuckin' drills on his tank, which is cut to shreds at this point, and it's only a matter of time before he cuts a fucking artery-

Kaibara suddenly freezes mid-attack. Despite himself, Bakugou freezes too, as he sees the manic dark eyes before him darken even further. "… you hear that?"

The blonde holds his breath to listen, and hisses an expletive under his breath. "Fuck. Someone's coming."

Without a word, they drag each other to the other end of the gym, where a pile of rubble and dirt will hide them from plain view. It's a tight fit between the slabs of concrete and the wall, and they both have to press against each other to be completely engulfed in its shadows. Bakugou feels strong hands practically _slam_ on either side of him as they try to become one with the concrete as much as they can. They simultaneously hold their breaths and strain their still-ringing ears to listen to the intruder.

"... see Eraser? There's no-one here."

Bakugou sees a square-shaped shadow creep from the other side of the gym. He isn't able to hear the soft voice very well, but he guesses from the size and sound of it that it's Cementoss-sensei who is speaking to the other figure.

He hears a familiar grumble from a distance. "You sure about that, Cementoss? It looks pretty messed up here."

The more irregularly-shaped shadow approaches their slabs closer. Bakugou feels his heart beat an insane pace at the prospect of being found out by his homeroom teacher.

"1-B used the gym about an hour ago. I guess they didn't clean up after themselves… again." An exasperated sigh escapes from the tired teacher. "What's with that look? Nothing suspicious about students skipping cleaning duty-"

"Something feels off," is all Aizawa says. Bakugou watches as his shadow undulates across the floor, going closer to them one moment and then receding in the next one. Kaibara's so fucking close that he feels it when the guy bites down on his jaw in an attempt to calm down.

In pure reflex, he clenches his fists against something, which turns out to be the shred of cloth still hanging off of the drill-fucker's body, somewhere at his left hip. The dark-haired boy looks up at him momentarily. His face has reverted back to its lifeless, stank-face version, but keeps deathly still and silent.

Again, Cementoss sighs. "Well, I gotta tell you. If your suspicions about this student 'fight club' of yours is true, I don't think they have a meeting in this gym today. Maybe they're having it tomorrow?"

Aizawa gives a rumbling hum in response. His fucking shadow's really, really, _really_ fucking close to where they're hiding. If they breathe too loud, if their hearts beat any more loudly than they are right now, they'd be found out, and their asses are gonna be expelled.

"Yeah. Guess you're right." The shadow begins to recede. It takes all of Bakugou's self-control not to deflate right there and then. "But we have to check the other places too, Ishiyama. Let's go."

Cementoss gives one exasperated sound or the other, and agrees. Bakugou strains to hear the lights being clicked off and the footsteps disappearing. He counts to five in his head before he exhales loudly for _anyone_ to hear. "Fucking shit that was too close."

Kaibara hums in response. "Guess we've been too careless if Eraser's getting suspicious," he says flatly.

Yeah. Who knows how fucking Eraserhead caught wind of their obviously _illegal_ activities-all out fights, no holds barred, no limits to quirk usage, none of those fucking rules that their match-ups in class tend to have. Just a general sense of not fucking killing the other guy too much, maybe. He supposes it's a miracle that the two of them _haven't_ been caught yet for the past couple weeks they've met up incognito to beat the shit out of each other, given how much noise they make when they get together, but…

"You ain't chickening out of this now, are ya, drill fucker?" asks Bakugou. He's merely taunting him, of course. It isn't a fucking plea to keep their nice little arrangement going. Even though he'll probably never find another guy who will allow him to beat him up as much as Kaibara has, and vice versa (the vice versa is important-Bakugou won't fuck with _anyone_ too weak to fight back), Bakugou doesn't fucking _plead_ with anyone.

So it's fucking annoying how there's a smug look on the other boy's mug when he raises his eyebrows at him. "You scared that I'm not gonna come play with you anymore, Bakugou?"

Who the fuck does this little shit think he is? He doesn't give him time to give a self-satisfied chuckle before Bakugou retaliates violently by shoving him hard against the opposite wall. Kaibara's head slams against it with a concerning sound, but all he does is laugh anyway, through gritted teeth and blood and bruises that look so fuckin' _good_ on him.

"Shut the fuck up, pretty boy." He presses his body, all heat and explosions and frenzied energy, against the other boy, in an effort to trap him. Kaibara only sneers back. "Just checkin' that you ain't scared shitless or anything. I'm not interested in fucking with cowards."

"Only thing I'm scared of is you not shutting the fuck up."

He doesn't exactly know how it starts, but when Bakugou blinks next, Kaibara's already got that pretty, bruised face on him, cut lip smashing against his own in the most violent, bloodied make-out session he's ever had.

It's fucking messy. Bakugou feel their teeth clacking, tastes iron and spit and searing heat inside his mouth. Feels those stupid shitty drill-tips on his fingers dig and scratch into the skin of his bare back, as Kaibara pulls him closer, desperately. Feels the pure muscle on the other's body, as he presses the explosive blonde against the concrete with all the force of a tank.

To his surprise, Bakugou feels himself mirroring the other boy's movements. His mouth is tasting all that it can inside that shit-talking mouth of his. His hands are working their way to cover Kaibara's entire scalp in fucking nitrogen. He feels his breath hitch in his throat, when he feels the pretty boy _grind_ their hips together, feels his blood leave the remaining rational brain cells he has and go south, and then-

Kaibara twists their body out of that tight space, and practically throws him to the ground. Bakugou growls more in offense, than pain or shock, as his back slams against the uneven pavement. "What the f-"

The drill-fucker's suddenly fucking straddling him with a victorious, shit-eating grin on his face. Bakugou's never seen eyes so dark as the ones that are looking down on him and drinking the fallen sight of him. One drill tip traces a searing hot line down the skin of Bakugou's bruised left cheek. "Look at that. So you _can_ shut up after all, sweet cheeks. Guess I got nothing to be afraid of-"

"F-fuck you-" Bakugou grits out, as Kaibara licks a neat stripe from the blonde's abs to his neck. He ends the trail with a sharp bite at the junction of his neck and shoulder-the one busted up by his drills moments before-making him howl.

"You wish." The self-satisfied look on his face is just asking for cold-blooded murder at this point. But before Bakugou could will his stunned limbs to do just that, Kaibara is already standing up and dusting himself off, as if nothing happened.

"Oi, where the fuck are you going?"

"Showers," he replies nonchalantly. It's astounding how rapidly this fucker switches from pure fire to a being even deader than that half-and-half bastard. Bakugou must have made a ridiculous face or a ridiculous sound, because when he looks back, there's an amused grin on his face. "I'm still going to play with you, sweet cheeks-"

"The fuck you calling sweet cheeks, drill fucker-"

Kaibara ignores this and runs over his runaway rant with just a raise of one eyebrow. "You got nothing to worry about," he says, chuckling darkly. "I like a man who can fuck me up. Pressure's on you to keep me interested, though."

This shuts Bakugou up for the second time this evening. Kaibara gives him another victory smirk, and he _fucking hates it._

As the other boy and all his shredded clothes begin to walk away from him, Bakugou stalks after him, all full intentions of showing him just how much _this_ fucker can fuck him up.

* * *

 **AN:** Sometimes you get an urge to write a fic that'll make you go "why did I even write this" afterward


	23. Day 23 - Tattoos - SetsuJirouTodoChako

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 23 - Tattoos - SetsuJirouTodoChako

* * *

Uraraka Ochako sighs as she pulls off her OR scrub suit in the women's lockers. She doesn't always feel like shit and that she's super incompetent at her job, but then again she didn't always have to assist Dr. Hakamata for three consecutive surgeries. After being yelled at and threatened to be stitched up the ceiling about fifty times, her ego had just about enough bruising.

"I've had my share of miserable days, but you make a funeral look like a rave, Uraraka."

Uraraka looks up from her miserable face reflected in her little mirror inside her little locker to look at the woman who entered. "Oh-Dr Tokage? What're you doing here?"

The green-haired internist gives her a saw-tooth grin as she saunters in with a sterile set of scrubs. "Cardiac monitoring duties. I ran into a miserable-looking Honenuki on the way here. I'm guessing you both got an acute case of Best Jeans Syndrome."

"You got that right, doc," Uraraka says with another despondent sigh, one that she pulls out of the very depths of her being. "I was literally moments away from being torn into shreds and woven into the world's ugliest quilt… I made so many booboos that…"

 _Oh sweet fuck Happy Thanksgiving._

"That I can't…" Uraraka struggles, as Tokage Setsuna casually starts pulling off her scaly-green dress, showing off an arsenal of tattoos over the smooth skin of her arms, chest, belly, and hips, and the most toned body on a woman she's ever seen, _ever_ , in her short existence as a disastrous bisexual. When the girl bends over to shimmy out of her shoes, Uraraka had to turn around to stop staring at her toned ass. "Sorry doc, I totally forgot what I was saying-"

Dr. Tokage chuckles. Through the little mirror in her locker, Uraraka sees that her stupid pink cheeks have turned cherry red. She's probably a few moments away from floating herself into an embarrassed heap in the ceiling, if the doctor didn't speak in the next second. "It's fine. People tend to do that when they see all the tats. I regularly get shit over it, like _why does a doctor look like a freakin' Yakuza member,_ and things like that-"

"Th-that's not what I w-was thinking at all!" Uraraka stammers, willing herself to look at the green-haired girl again. Thankfully, Dr. Tokage's already pulling down the scrub top, and the brunette's heart is spared a heap of extra work load. "I think your tats are amazing! I wish I had about half as many as you do! I just have a small one myself, and it's not that nice-looking…"

"You think so? I'm sure it ain't that bad," says Tokage, with a playful little smirk on her wide mouth. "Care to show me?"

Uraraka blushes up to her hairline and internally beats herself up for even mentioning her tattoo. Because while she's a little proud of having the courage to get a tattoo in the first place, she isn't sure that she wants to show her fat ass to Tokage… especially not after she's given such a lovely a visual treat.

Still, it'd be weird not to show it to her at this point, so she tries not to be too obviously reluctant when she pulls down her pants and shows the skin of the outside of her left thigh, angling her butt outwards so the other girl can see it. Her blush doesn't die down as Tokage appraises it, bending her face so close over her bottom that she feels her piercing gaze on her.

"That's such a cute little astronaut, Uraraka!" giggles the doctor, green eyes dilating from slits into interested dark oblongs. "And those cute planet-balloons! Are you into outer space or something?"

"Y… yeah… space is cool," she says dumbly, making herself internally flinch at how uncool she sounds. Luckily though, Tokage doesn't seem to mind her silliness, and just gives that melodic laugh again. She tries to recover by adding, "I mean… I want to have another tattoo… maybe like, a half sleeve or something, with all the planets-"

She shows off her bare arm, which contrasts quite markedly against Tokage's decorated one. She sees that her muscly right arm has various sharp-toothed dinosaurs on it, inked in spectacular detail.

The green-haired girl hums thoughtfully, tapping one scaly finger to her chin. "You serious about that, Uraraka?"

The nurse blinks as she regards Tokage's daring stare. "Yeah, I'm serious… I guess? I mean, I've looked around for artists and stuff, but as for design..."

"Coolness. That's all I need to hear." The girl shows off her sharp teeth again and raises both eyebrows. "You're done with your shift, yeah? You should wait for me. This thing'll take, like, a second or so-"

"Huh? But-"

"I mean, as long as the patient doesn't die or anything," she adds with a chortle and a graceful wave of her inked hand. "I'll see you at the cafeteria in like, a couple of hours? Hey, maybe I can leave my mouth with you so we can keep talking?"

The young nurse yelps in horror and stammers the most polite _no thank you I don't want to spend the next two hours with your sexy disembodied mouth_ , and Tokage only cackles in response. In a few moments, the woman disappears into the operating room suites, and Uraraka can only calm her silly pink cheeks down and get dressed.

* * *

Clad in her casual clothes (which is just a faded black tank top, joggers, and a pair of sneakers), Uraraka nervously chews on the plastic straw half-dipped in her lukewarm coke when she sees Dr. Tokage amble up to her, clad once more in an emerald-green snakeskin dress and a white coat.

In her doctor-ly regalia, all her tattoos are hidden from plain sight. There's a certain thrill that comes with knowing how the map of her body looks like, while the rest of the world around her doesn't. "So good news, the patient's alive and I get to go home while Ibara-chan takes care of the rest. You ready to go, Uraraka?" she asks, sticking out her forked tongue for good measure.

"I guess?" Uraraka answers uneasily. Wherever Tokage's taking her, she hopes it's a place where she can see those lovely dinosaur-studded arms again.

They walk out of the hospital, with Tokage filling the empty air between them with chatter. Uraraka's amazed by her ability to be able to make a conversation about _anything._ By the time they reach their destination, the young nurse finds herself up-to-date with all the latest gossip going around the hospital. In particular, one involving Dr. Todoroki and his father, the present number one pro-hero Endeavor, who's allegedly on a head-hunt for a perfect mate with a perfect quirk so he can arrange a marriage and hopefully produce a grandchild who'd actually agree to being a pro hero, unlike any of his children who avoided heroism like the plague.

Uraraka wrinkles her nose at that. Arranged marriages-aren't they a thing of the distant past? Or like stupid plot devices in _shoujo_ manga, just an excuse for ordinary MCs to interact with impossibly rich and handsome men? Well, Dr. Todoroki Shouto indeed fits the bill for your standard _shoujo_ or _josei_ hero. He has the wealth, the breeding, and the _brooding_ too. Just enough torment to be interesting, but not overwhelming, like Dr. Tokoyami or Dr. Kuroiro from radiology.

And the looks. Ohh, buddy boy, the looks. That dual-toned hair, those crazy heterochromatic eyes, how very, very pretty his face looks, even with the scar on his face. Not to mention how unfairly muscled his body is, for someone who spends all his time doing neurosurgery and probably not much of anything else. Uraraka's spent many semiconscious moments inside and outside the OR watching him undress and unglove and unmask, enjoying how his strong arms look while scrubbing down for the next procedure-

Wait, did she really just-with _Doctoroki_ again, of all people-ugh, Uraraka wants to punch herself in the damn face. She hasn't even finished fantasizing about Dr. Tokage, and here she is moving on to the Hosu Gen's unofficial image model-who, by the way, doesn't even have a good reason to interact with her outside the OR.

But even though Uraraka's notoriously mercurial when it comes to her crushes, Dr. Todoroki's one of her strong constants. She always comes in danger of losing herself in her thoughts when she thinks of him, for some reason. What a true disaster she's turning out to be.

She focuses her attention instead on the small place they've ended up, called _Illusion Inks._ The young nurse tilts her head curiously at the entrance and doesn't move until Tokage does a little come-hither motion with her fingers.

"Come on. Are you backing out or something, Uraraka?" she asks teasingly.

"Um," she begins uneasily, rubbing her arm self-consciously, "I know I said I wanted a tattoo, but I didn't mean _tonight-_ "

"No time like the present, babe," is all the green-haired girl says before she forcibly drags Uraraka by the arm and into the threshold. Damn, the woman's frickin' _strong,_ those muscles aren't just for show.

The inside of the shop is nice and neat and bright. The walls are full of illustrations of varying themes, all of them dream-like: dragons and florals and creatures of the deep blue sea. Uraraka finds herself taken in particular by the galaxy themed ones, showing off clouds of purple and deep red surrounding a sea of stars.

She doesn't pay attention to the beautiful illustrations for very long, though. Behind the counter is who Uraraka swears is an actual pixie of the dark-elemental type unless proven otherwise-straight, dark hair that falls above her shoulders, dark purple eyes that have just-enough-torment, and smooth beautiful skin riddled with tattoos all over her arms, neck, and chest. Her elongated earlobes are plugged into her phone, and she seems to be strumming on a phantom guitar before she looks up to the two visitors.

She breaks out into a cute grin. "Hey, Setsuna~ My fav crazy internist!"

"Kyouka! My beautiful tattooed angel, I missed you!"

Uraraka watches as they share a kiss that definitely lasts for more than ten seconds. She wonders whether it's polite to look away or not, and whether it's normal to suddenly feel so single and miserable upon the sight of two beautiful girls kissing until they thankfully break apart.

The girl called Kyouka then turns to Uraraka and regards her with a curious stare. "So Setsuna, are you going to introduce me, or…?"

"Of course I am," she says, with some sass. "This here's Uraraka Ochako, one of the best OR nurses in Hosu Gen, and your next beautiful canvas."

"Hey. Jirou Kyouka. I'm an apprentice here," the girl offers, offering out her hand for Uraraka to shake. "If I look familiar, it's probably 'cause you see me down the street sometimes trying not to kill my boss and co-worker at NTG Cafe."

Uraraka gasps. "Oh, you work there? Your cold brew's _amazing._ And yeah, I've seen your boss maybe once? I'd just like to say, from the bottom of my heart: _yikes._ "

Jirou laughs heartily at this. "I like this girl. You should ask her out too, Setsuna."

The green-haired girl hums thoughtfully. "I was getting to that," she begins, and before Uraraka can even _process_ what they meant, Tokage's already shrugging off her doctor's coat, and she's looking at those wonderful arms again, and all sound reasoning goes out the window. "Anyways, Kyouka, Uraraka here tells me that she wants a galaxy-themed sleeve to match the cute little astronaut she has tattooed on her toned-as-fuck left thigh-"

 _… she likes my thigh?_ Uraraka stammers bashfully in her head, before she realizes that Tokage's already motioning for her to take of her pants right there to show Jirou the astronaut. Blushing, she obliges, hooking her thumb against the garter of her joggers while severely regretting her choice of hot-pink, kitten-print cotton undies that day, to show off her ass and all its unseemly stretchmarks for the second time that evening.

Jirou whistles low and carefully touches her skin and traces the outlines of the astronaut and balloons with her calloused fingertips. "Wow, it's _so cute,_ Uraraka. You might need to have it retouched, but it's really well-made. Who's your artist?"

"Um… he moved away, but Kamakiri-san from Mantis Tattoos did this one-"

"Yikes. Another mess of a human being, that mans is. Totes cray-cray, amirite?" a different, sultry voice calls out from behind them.

Uraraka goes ramrod straight and struggles dumbly to pull her pants up, but instead drops the mess of fabric to the floor. A tangled mess of astonishment and horror finds itself uncoiling inside her chest when she sees just _who_ comes out of the back of the shop, to also stare at the little insignificant artwork on her thigh.

Uraraka thinks that the woman who walks in is the very definition of _babe_ -long, light brown hair that falls over her shoulders, wide brown eyes, full lips with a tasteful hint of rouge, an hourglass figure accentuated by a jet-black bodycon dress that shows off her ample cleavage. Like everyone else in this damn place, all her exposed skin is covered in ink. Most of them are floral and dreamy and absolutely gorgeous, of course, and if she were the only one there, Uraraka would have spent more time appreciating all the details.

Yet, the person next to her just…! Makes her want to drop dead right there! Makes her want to walk her fat ass back to the ER and ask for a sedative that'll last her for the next seven years!

Because why in seven hells would Todoroki Shouto, of all people, be standing there with his shirt only half-way on, with his stupid sexy arms and stupid sexy torso and stupid sexy abs on full display, his stupid sexy mouth half-open and curious, and his stupid sexy eyes directed _right at her naked, stretchmarky ass_?!

Uraraka knows that she should probably pull her stupid pants up and rescue what little dignity she has left. Her little brain goes _shit shit shit_ as it takes her too long to hide her butt and her silly underwear and tattoo.

Thankfully, his stare doesn't last very long. He makes an awkward noise in his throat, trains those distinct eyes elsewhere, and mutters, "I didn't see anything, Uraraka."

 _Yes you did, you obviously did, Doctorokiiii whyyyy do you exist,_ she cries in her head. Beside her, she hears Tokage trying to keep her shit together. She somehow manages not to float her ass up the ceiling and into outer space and to straighten up.

She hears the woman laughing next to her. "You didn't? Too bad, fam, those are the nicest set of gams I've ever seen in me life. Cannot. Even."

When Uraraka dares herself to look at the young doctor again, she sees that he's already got his shirt back on and that his face is a little pink and he couldn't look at Uraraka in the eye. She ponders briefly if she needs to leave the OR-maybe ICU has openings or something.

"So… Camie, I hear she wants a galaxy-themed sleeve, so I'm planning to make some designs for her right now," the dark-haired girl pipes up brightly, interrupting Uraraka's shame-filled train of thought.

The bombshell named Camie puts a finger to her full lips and makes a show of thinking about it. "This'll be your biggest project to date, fam. You up to this?"

"Sure am, boss." Jirou makes a show of flexing her slender arm and all its tattoos. Tokage subsequently swoons theatrically next to her.

"Yass~ then she's all yours, my sweet child. Although, ya gotta make time for her after closing hours. We're fully booked for, like, the next hundred years and so~"

"Leave it to me." Jirou does a lazy salute and gives Uraraka a pure, excited smile, one that momentarily makes the nurse about the terrible misfortunes that had happened to her and her ass just then. All she wants to do now is to spend the rest of the evening with this beautiful pixie, talking about the vast infinity of space, all the undiscovered planets, aliens-

"Hey, Todoroki, lemme see your back!" Tokage says, pulling at the end of his shirt.

"Okay."

Suddenly, Todoroki's shirt comes off again, and Uraraka feels the Big Bang emulating in her brain once more. She cannot keep her jaw from opening like Pandora's box as she takes in the beautiful sight.

Dr. Todoroki Shouto's back is a fuckin' _masterpiece,_ and she isn't talking about the obra maestra of a tattoo that Camie must have been working on before they arrived. Even miniscule movements of his arms and torso-fuck, even when he fucking _breathes_ she sees muscles moving deliciously under his skin. It's not too bulky either, just lean and well-proportioned and tasteful. Everything the light touches is a kingdom for her eyes to feast on-her fingers itched to touch the cuts-

Oh, and also, the tattoo. There's saran wrap over it, but Uraraka still sees that it's so beautiful it's fearsome. Two dragons, entwined in each other, staring each other down as if they're preparing for a battle to the death. On the right the dragon is grey and white, with glaciers surrounding it. On the left, a red dragon with hot blue eyes is engulfed in flame. The tattoo isn't complete yet, and most of the skin on his back is swollen and tender, but Uraraka can tell that once it completely heals, it'll be the most beautiful back in the history of all backs.

"Hot damn, Todoroki," Tokage whistles. "Knowing you though, it still screams daddy issues-I mean, really, ice versus fire? You're still hung up about that mess? But. Hot fucking damn."

"Sure," Todoroki says flatly, not deigning himself to remark about the daddy issues thing. Uraraka sees a little annoyed flash in his eyes, however, and she's sure that he isn't thinking of Tokage's super foul remarks.

"Lit, ain't it? My best work to date, even if I say so myself," Camie says, proudly strutting around to stare at her handiwork once again. "We gots maybe two sesh's to go, and his back's good to go. You like it, Astronaut Sis?"

Uraraka closes her mouth shut and hates herself for the loud sound it makes. "Y-yeah, it's pretty… um, lit," she offers weakly.

She tries not to think too hard about the slightly-less-disinterested look that Todoroki gives her before he shrugs on his shirt again. He gives a curt little nod to Camie and says, "I'll see you in a couple of weeks, Utsushimi."

"Sure, TodoBroki. Have fun saving lives and all," Camie says, puckering her lips for a flying kiss that the dual-toned man ignores blatantly as he turns for the exit.

Uraraka thinks that she's finally going to be able to catch her breath, but suddenly Todoroki stops at the door and turns his mismatched eyes to her. "Uraraka," he calls out, making her freeze.

"Y-yes, Doc?" she stammers, her posture suddenly meek and all nurse-like.

There's that odd look on his face again, and for a second Uraraka worries that he'll tell her not to spread the word about his huge fucking ass back tattoo, but all he says is, "Show me your tat once you're done. I'll see you tomorrow."

Uraraka doesn't know what she says in response, but he gives her a ghost of a smile before he leaves the premises.

When she deflates, Tokage and Jirou are positively cackling at her, and all she's able to manage is a whine about how unfair life is. "I can't believe I just showed Dr. Todoroki Shouto my ass," she whines into Tokage's arms, as the lizard girl holds her in mock-comfort.

"And as a direct result of it, he's in-love with your astronaut ass," the doctor remarks with a sawtooth grin. "But we can talk about our future foursome later. Right now, please let my beautiful and talented girlfriend draw on your sexy arm, Uraraka!"

Uraraka obliges and follows Jirou out into the back, where they finally talk about her tattoo. But she finds out how much of a struggle it is to keep her thoughts in outer space when most of her mind is occupied by fire and ice.

* * *

 **AN:** So this is supposedly just going to be JirouChako, but I'm high key crushing on Setsuna right now so I'm using all the excuses I can to write her. Also I figured I could link the next story from this AU with this one so yay here's another one from the mess of a cafe/hospital AU i'm working on.

The TodoChako element shall be continued in the Fake Dating AU (woohoo one of my fav tropes!) please look forward to it!


	24. Day 24 - Music - ShinKamiJirou

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 24 - Music - ShinKamiJirou

 _AN: includes background kiribakumomo  
also, implied monoshin because. just because._

* * *

As they enter the studio, late again as usual, Tokoyami watches with morbid interest as his best friend and beloved brother-o'-his, Kaminari Denki, prepares to make a complete and utter fool of himself again.

"'Kage," the electric blonde sighs dreamily, as he looks at the new subjects of his misguided affections, who are interacting over serious band matters at the other end of the studio, "Is it weird that purple's my favorite color now?"

"Not at all, brother of mine," Tokoyami answers darkly. This brother of his has been described by many a friend and many a foe as a walking disaster, and as much as his brotherly affections honed his natural instinct to keep his brother in line, there's barely a thing he can do once Kaminari's gone in his love-struck Jamming Whey mode.

As it happens then, Kaminari's shamelessly staring at their fearless band leader Jirou Kyouka. She is composing a new melody with her bass in tow, and their ever-fearsome band manager, Shinsou Hitoshi, is giving her an overly blunt appraisal of her new composition. "So I'm thinking that at the second chorus, it'll be all, _da-da-da-da,_ and then Momo'll go, _ta-ra-ra-rannn_ right at this part-"

Shinsou shakes his head. "Yaoyorozu's got those glissandos at the verses already. It's gonna sound too unbalanced. I think Tokoyami's gonna make it sound better like this-"

The purple-haired manager, who's also a songwriter now, apparently, has one of Yaoyorozu's Gibson guitars in his hands. He easily plays a sweet lick, one that instantly makes Kaminari visibly swoon and drool next to him.

Jirou sees the shameless swoon and gives the duo a cool little smirk. "You guys made it. Finally. Were your exams that tough, Tokoyami?"

"The path to true understanding of the forbidden truths of accountancy is wrought with trials and tribulations."

The dark-haired girl blinks once at him in confusion. Kaminari gives her his trademark double thumbs up. "He means, yeah it was fucking tough. Aren't you gonna ask how _my_ Electrical System Design exam went, Jirou?"

"I know how it went without you telling me, Jamming Whey. That vacant look in your eyes tells a sad, sad story of abject failure…"

"Whey~~ that's really mean of you, Jirou!" complains the blonde when, as usual, their band leader breaks out into another unstoppable fit of giggles. Still, Tokoyami sees the sparkle in his eyes as he wedges himself in between the two shades of purple and shamelessly throws his arms around them. "So, I didn't know that you got mad skillz, you sexy sleepy manager you~ Man, just when I thought I could not be any more attracted to you-"

Shinsou rolls his eyes as Jirou's giggles become more uncontrollable. By this time, the purple duo is used to Kaminari's relentless flirting and have figured out that the best thing to do is to remain as inert as possible. Tokoyami observes, however, that he flushes a little as he mumbles his next response. "Nah. It's been too long, and I'm rusty, so…"

"Not that good?!" Jirou protests, looking absolutely offended that the messy indigo-haired guy would even think of saying such a blasphemy.

Shinsou begins to grumble again, "Jirou, don't start-"

But she does. Looking at Kaminari and Tokoyami straight in their confused eyes, she gesticulates wildly as she drops the truth bombs. "You're telling me that one of the two of The Thieving Cats thinks that his music is shit?"

Kaminari continues to stare blankly at everyone, but Tokoyami suddenly chokes on his spit. "Wait… do you mean to tell me that Shinsou-kun was-"

"Ya-huh! Alias HypnoCat, _only_ the guitarist/composer of one of the greatest underground bands, ever, in the history of this city? The same HypnoCat who was specially trained by the one and only Eraserhead to make music-"

"WHEY?! Shinsou knows _the_ Eraserhead personally?!" Kaminari cries, training his little oblong eyes to Shinsou's, who looks like he wants to sink into the center of the earth. "Dude. When I was in middle school, I offered a candle and leftover hamburgers in front of EraserMic's poster in my room every single night, praying for guidance to form the world's most awesome band-"

"I really didn't need to hear that creepy little tidbit, Kaminari-"

"Also! How come I don't know about this band of yours?!" Kaminari demands, as if it's everyone else's fault that he's not in the know. "I mean, how underground were you guys? And what happened to The Thieving Cats, if you guys were so good, whey?"

Tokoyami starts to hear the little jealous lilt in Kaminari's voice, and he mumbles a little, "It's okay, brother of mine," to calm him down. Thankfully, it works, and Shinsou's given a little room to scratch the back of his neck awkwardly.

"We weren't that bad, I guess. We released a couple of LPs that people got hyped about, but that's it." He shrugs and keeps those tired dark eyes to the floor and says, "Needed to go on hiatus, 'cause the other guy went away."

Tokoyami nods in understanding. He remembers one of the Thieving Cats' gigs a couple of years ago, and remembers how entranced he was to listen to the dark, hypnotic music that the duo produced. He remembers how the dreary HypnoCat and his larger-than-life and abrasive partner, Phantom Thief, contrasted on stage. It's an acquired taste, what people might call _musician's music,_ even, but they gained enough supporters to be featured a number of times in magazines and on TV.

"Uh. What happened to him?" Kaminari asks, golden eyes shining with curiosity. There's a little hint of conspiracy when he asks, incessantly, "Did you guys break up? Have a major fight? Did he find a Yoko? Did _you_ find a Yoko? Did he die, or got maimed, or-wait, can _I_ be your Yoko-"

"No. God," grumbles Shinsou, keeping his anxious hand at the back of his neck, "He went to France for his masterals. He's coming back next year."

Kaminari gives a little "ah~" of understanding. It's plain to Tokoyami that Shinsou is working hard to keep a straight face, but the misery hides plainly under the surface.

He places a hand on their manager's shoulder and trains his red eyes on indigo ones. "Days shall quickly steep themselves in nights, and nights shall quickly dream away the time. 'Til then, you have us, brother of mine."

While Kaminari gives a sincere sniffle behind him, Shinsou looks back at him with a mildly confused gaze. "Um. Thanks. I guess. You a lit major or something?"

"... Accounting."

"Ah."

Jirou watches this odd exchange with an amused glint in her eye. "I guess what he means is, you'll be okay for the meantime, dude. Before you guys have your big comeback, you have us, right?"

"That's right, you sexy sleepy manager you!" Much to the purple-haired man's chagrin, Kaminari begins to rub his cheek quite contentedly against Shinsou's shoulder, like the world's most needy cat. "You're making music with the World's Greatest Band now~ we're gonna be so good, EraserMic's gonna make a comeback to collaborate with us, and all my middle school fantasies will come true…"

"Fat chance," grumbles Shinsou, shoving Kaminari's face away with his hand. This makes the electric blonde whine and throw himself over Jirou, who only turns away cackling. "Anyways, can we _please_ get back to polishing this new song of yours, Jirou? This record company deal is no joke. Also, where the fuck are KiriBakuMomo-"

As if on cue, the explosive drummer's swear resonates within the studio. "Fucking shitty-hair roadie! I said carry the keyboard, not the keyboardist!"

"I can carry 'em all, Baku-bro! You can ride on my back too, if you want-"

"Kirishima-san, please, that's not necessary-"

Tokoyami trains his dark gaze to the new source of cacophony, which is a dreary vision in itself: Kirishima is somehow carrying two guitars, a keyboard, an amplifier, and a flustered Yaoyorozu Momo in his sturdy arms, while Bakugou is swearing him to the seventh circle of hell and back.

An amusing sight, truth be told. Jirou looks like she's about to die of laughter, while Kaminari expresses his jealousy over Yaomomo having the privilege of holding on to Kirishima's beefy arms.

As for their manager, while he grumbles something about another migraine coming to him, Tokoyami sees a warm, light glint in his eyes, and he knows that for all his talk, Shinsou finds himself quite at home.

* * *

 **AN:** Not too happy with this but a little brainless slice of life every now and then isn't too bad right


	25. Day 25 - Secrets - BakuSen

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 25 - Secrets - Bakusen

 _AN: This ficlet has mentions of blood and again, disturbing behaviors.  
Written for the tumblr anons who asked for a better explanation for the other BakuSen fic hehehe :) I hope you guys like this!_

* * *

"Oi. The fuck you staring at?"

So it begins, but Kaibara Sen doesn't know it yet. He stops mid-stride and reluctantly shifts his attention to the infamous explosive blonde, who is already blocking his way.

"Yeah you. I'm fucking talking to you, pretty boy. Glaring at me like you want to kill me. You wanna go, fucker?"

Who says he's been staring, anyway? It's another boring-ass Tuesday in UA, and he's walking the halls next to Kosei, minding his own business when he hears this pretty blonde loudmouth rave about his new attacks to the only guy who'd listen to him, which is the Tetsutetsu rip-off next door. Sen merely gave him the judgmental side-eye he deserves, nothing more, nothing less.

Looks like the fucker wants something more, though. He's hunkering around like a thug, stepping where he should be stepping, leering so close to his face with that jaw jutting out that he's able to smell the sickening sweet stench of nitroglycerin emanating from within his uniform.

Sen doesn't move. Doesn't even retract his so-called killer glare. He feels like he's staring down a wild animal when he keeps his dark eyes trained on those blood-red ones and smirks. "You'd like that, dynamite-face? All you gotta do is ask a little nicer, you know."

A small, irrational, possibly evil voice in his head tells him to go ahead and take the blonde out. Drag him out into the field and beat the living shit out of that smug, explosive head of his, drill holes in his eyes and bones for everyone else to see. It's a sickening and gruesome vision, even if it's just playing in a little screen he pushes to the back of his head, yet he doesn't stop it, even as he sees Bakugou Katsuki grit his teeth.

"Guys, come on." The Tetsutetsu rip-off-what's his name again, Kirishima?-gets in between them and puts his arm out in front of the blonde, as if to protect Sen from an impending explosion. It's a little insulting, but the ease with which Kirishima does it, he supposes it's merely muscle memory at this point. "Sorry 'bout this, guys. Bakugou's just a little fired up from combat training earlier-"

"Shut the fuck-up, shitty hair, who fucking asked you-"

"It's cool, man, we get it," Kosei chimes in from the side, as he suddenly places his foot in front of Sen. He wonders why for one short moment, and he realizes belatedly that he's already stepping forward with his fists clenched and his jaw tensed. "Sorry 'bout Sen too. He just, you know… looks like _that_ … all the time. Doesn't mean anything by it, promise."

Sen knows he only means well, but this time he directs his scowl to Kosei. Because in this particular point in time, his so-called bitch face had a meaning and purpose. He doesn't voice it out, though.

"You sure about that, Googly-eyes? Seems like he's asking for a fist to his face."

"Right, Sen? Come on, man." Kosei trains his round eyes at him, with a _dude, do you really want to fucking mess with Bakugou Fucking Katsuki_ look in them. He keeps that foot in front of his, as if _he's_ the wild animal that needs to be restrained from this side.

Still, Sen forces himself to understand Kosei's gaze, which is getting more anxious by the second. He relents and steps back quietly, not bothering to hide any reluctance. He feels his face relax back into its usual permanent scowl and raises his eyebrows quietly at Kirishima, who exhales quietly.

Throughout this exchange, he observes with mild interest how Bakugou's eyes never leave his. It isn't the challenging glare he's given him moments before, no. It's quiet, and alert, and cautious, and observant. Like a thug in a street fight, arms up and in full defense, watching his enemy's hand and waiting to see where the knife will strike next.

When Sen reverts into his usual glare, the interest is gone in a flash. He makes a small annoyed sound with his tongue and turns away. "Fucking googly-eyes and bitch-face. Don't get in our way again."

He stomps his way away from them, not even bothering to wait for Kirishima, who stammers another apology to the two of them before rushing after the wild animal. Kosei releases a quiet breath and stares at Sen warily.

"What?"

He seems to hesitate a little before he takes on a weird, careful tone. "Dude… you good? You looked like you were really gonna deck him back there."

He wonders how close he actually was. His fists were clenched, he was _this close_ to lifting it, he was preparing all his muscles to gyrate his limb into a drill. Bakugou was less than a foot away. If the other guy hit first, he'd have a clean shot at that infuriating, self-assured mug of his. Must feel absolutely _dreadful_ to mess that pretty face up-

He doesn't want Kosei to worry though, so he answers with the deadest voice he can muster. "Did it?" is all he says, before making his way inside the classroom.

"Yeah, it did." Strangely persistent, his friend chases after his suddenly too-quick stride and continues pressing him. "I dunno man, not to be a pain or anything, but you kinda seem really, really _testy_ these days. Sometimes I just, y'know, wanna make sure that you don't actually, um…"

Kosei trails off when Sen looks up at him with what assumes is his usual look of disinterest. Maybe it's loaded with something else, judging by the way the other boy stops in his tracks and flinches.

"That I don't what?"

"Um." He sees him make a subtle attempt at swallowing nervously, before he continues, "That you don't kill anyone…?" Sen steps towards him, and he backs off in what seems like an effort at self-preservation. "Don't get me wrong, man, it ain't just me. You just have that vibe about you, nowadays…"

Kosei is the first person to tell him this observation to his face, but Sen has heard his classmates mumble about this in the locker rooms too, when they think he isn't listening. Seems like his frustration built up in the Joint Training Exercise had no way of getting out of his system. Fuck, that fight really _was_ frustrating, every time he thinks of it he grits his teeth. He was so fucking close to absolutely destroying Ojiro, and he wouldn't have regretted anything if he did. If fucking Iida minded his own fight and didn't get in the fucking way-

He feels the rage sometimes, and sometimes it's so strong that he feels concerned. He knows that for this to go away, all he needs is another _chance,_ another one-on-one with an enemy who will give him a good fight. _._ An enemy who isn't fucking scared of him, who can fuck him up and vice versa. After the adrenaline rush of those first few moments fighting without limits, there's nothing inside him but endless frustration and an empty void.

He's aware enough to know that there's no-one in class who can fill in that void. Not even Kamakiri or Tokage, as insane as they put themselves out to be, can probably withstand the massive, consuming rage he's built up for the past month. And everyone seems to be aware of it too, since everyone seems to be nervous fighting against him in mock battles and combat training. In his opinion though, he's done a good job of keeping himself in control. He hasn't done damage that Recovery Girl couldn't fix so far, at least.

In response to his initial unresponsiveness, Kosei gives him a deer-in-the-headlight glance with those comical globes he calls eyeballs. Surrounding him, he notices that the rest of 1-B who is watching their conversation are waiting for his next move with bated breath.

So instead of blurting out his honest feelings that hell yeah he'd wreck Bakugou-fucking-Katsuki anytime, anywhere, if anyone just gave him a free pass to do so, he shuts his mouth and exhales quietly. He raises his hand, and even though Kosei flinches initially, the other boy relaxes when all he does is pat him on the shoulder.

"I'm good, man. As if I'd let that asshole goad me in a fight," he tells him coolly. He gives him a confident smirk that instantly sets the other boy at ease.

"Okay… that's good man. Just don't scare me like that again." Kosei gives him a grin, and looks happy as hell that they can finally talk about something else. He starts talking non-stop about how Samurai Blue won against the Germans, and Sen allows himself to slip back into the comfort of the routine.

The rage continues to flow.

* * *

Maybe he isn't able to keep all that rage out of plain sight after all, because Bakugou Katsuki somehow finds him again.

They're alone this time, in what might as well be a dump within the sprawling UA campus. The area is an open space where the outgoing third years used to practice before they installed the new gyms. There are old punching bags and slabs of wood and concrete and old tires littered everywhere. No-one thinks to use this space anymore, and the robots who regularly do rounds to snitch on students don't go there because it's essentially abandoned.

It's Sen's secret, one that he hasn't shared to anyone, not even his close friends in 1-B. Because it's all his, all the things here are his to destroy, and nothing and no-one can stop him. So isn't it funny that Bakugou Katsuki and his pretty round face is suddenly smack in the middle of the mess, as if begging to be destroyed too?

Sen doesn't immediately acknowledge his existence. Instead, he allows those blood-red eyes watch him as he drills a slab of concrete into oblivion with his bare hands. When he finally turns to him, he sees that the guy has his hands in his pockets, with his face bearing the slightest interest as if he's watching the sports festival on TV.

"The fuck are you doing here?" he grits out, just as the block of cement falls to pieces under his bare, gyrating hand. It doesn't come with the sense of satisfaction that it usually has now that his secret place is compromised.

Unapologetic, Bakugou saunters his way to him, gaze unrelenting. "What, I ain't allowed here in this fucking dump of yours, pretty boy? Isn't your property. I can go here anytime the fuck I want."

That infuriating self-satisfied smirk is on that stupid pretty mouth of his. All Sen wants to do is knock out all the teeth inside it, but he tightens his fists at his sides instead.

"Looks like you're regularly making a fucking mess of things here. You got crazy anger issues or something, perma-bitch-face?"

A bitter laugh escapes from Sen. "What the hell, who the fuck are you to tell me that shit?! Bakugou fucking Katsuki, of all people, telling me that I got anger issues. You don't even fucking know who I am-"

The gall of this shitlord. The fucking irony of it. Sen surmises that he can spend a very long time laughing at the ridiculousness of this shit show, but he doesn't have the time. Because as it happens very suddenly, Bakugou's in his space, fist grasping at his collar and strangling him, all of his sweet-smelling scent invading his nostrils, warm breath flooding his face as the blonde glowers at him up close.

"You're fucked in the head too, Kaibara. I can tell," he growls, ignoring how Sen automatically grips his strong, explosive fist in both of his hands in retaliation. "That look in your eyes tells me just as much."

Sen doesn't give himself time to think of what the fuck Bakugou means by that, or how the hell he knows his name, or why he's talking about his eyes with such a weird, reverent tone all of a sudden. Instead, he activates his quirk, making the fingers clutching Bakugou's fist and wrist revolve all the way down to hell.

He isn't wearing his drill-tips, so he doesn't draw blood immediately. But he does, of course he does because drawing blood is what he's good at, and he smirks at the first red droplets seep underneath his fingernails and fly between them. Bakugou hisses in pain long after the blood starts to spurt out of his wrist. He pulls his hand back, and along the way gives Sen a faceful of explosives. The force singes his hair, almost busts both of his eardrums, and sends his head whipping backwards.

The darker-haired boy barely manages to keep standing. The skin on his face stings from the explosion, and he hopes that the worst he gets out of it is a second-degree burn. But he keeps his stance wide and strong, because the other guy with the bleeding fist is amazingly unfazed at his blood loss and looks like he isn't done yet.

He doesn't know what he's expecting, but he definitely doesn't expect what Bakugou says next. "I'm right, aren't I, drill-fucker?" His laugh is abrasive, like sandpaper against sandpaper. His red eyes flash with mockery. "You're a bloodthirsty fucker. You're rarin' to kill me."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He sees droplets of sweat spark from the surface of his skin and into the air around his fists. Sen raises his hands and makes them revolve, ready to defend himself again.

"You know what I mean, pretty boy. You're just like me." Bakugou is starting to step forward, cautiously. His eyes never leave Sen's.

"Don't drag me down your level, you batshit fucker." When he readies his entire body, though, Sen knows that he won't get out of here by just parrying his blows. He held Bakugou's hand and felt all the frenetic energy begging to be released within, even after the blood spray-

"My level?" Bakugou sneers at him and whips one hand, sending explosions down on the tortured grass. "Then explain to me why your face looks like that… Kaibara Sen."

Sen… has no clear, rational explanation for that. Still, he knows that the frenzied glint in his eyes remains there, and he can't stop how his mouth is impulsively baring his teeth in an absolutely manic grin. When he laughs, it comes out as a howl that pierces through the ringing in his ears.

So he doesn't bother explaining, and instead steps one foot forward, ready to lunge. " You are fucking dead… Bakugou Katsuki."

Like a blast from a shotgun, they're suddenly simultaneously leaping off the ground and meeting each other mid-air. Sen narrowly avoids a right hook and feels the sting of heat against his side burns. He aims his right hand, revolving at 300 RPM, right at his opponent's chest.

Bakugou's reflexes are insane, though, and he doesn't even manage to snag the sorry mess of a necktie around the other boy's neck. He twists his body at an unnatural angle, increases the revolution by 200, and kicks his right leg down.

He hits Bakugou at the hip. The cry of pain that comes out is almost as satisfying as the point of contact. He feels the grin on his face grow wider, as he turns his head to survey the damage…

But instead, he's treated to another blast from both hands. He doesn't hear the expletive that comes out of his mouth when he feels the explosive force hit the side of his chest. Half of his grey workout shirt is bombed to smithereens, and he's worried that some of his ribs might be, too.

"Eyes on me, fucker. We're just getting started!"

Bakugou doesn't stop moving-one fist after another comes flying out, targeting his head, his chest, his neck. Sen dodges all of them, granted not as smoothly as he'd like because of how his brain's jarred to jello from all the blasts, but fuck him if he'd let this guy get another clean hit on him.

 _Up it to 700,_ he thinks to himself, catching one of Bakugou's forearms with both hands, not letting go even when Bakugou swears and the skin underneath starts to break. He gets a kick to his chest for all his efforts, something a little weaker than before that makes him smirk.

The blonde steps back with a growl and shakes his newly torn uniform sleeves and injured arm. Sen gives himself a split second to see the new, dripping rosettes of open flesh there, before they're launching towards each other again like missiles.

 _1000,_ he thinks to himself as he lets his hands whirr like the blades of a blender. The speed of the revolutions make his own bones ache and suffocates all his nerves and makes his limbs harder to control, but he doesn't give a fuck. He's never broken through this threshold before, and he's surprised at just how thrilling it is that the person who sees it doesn't run away.

In fact, the excitement in the blonde fucker's eyes just grows and grows. "That's it, you drill bastard. Give me all you've got!"

So he does.

At the back of his head, he knows this is wrong. What the hell is he going to do if he accidentally lops of an ear, or slices through the other guy's neck by accident? Never mind that, what the hell is Bakugou going to do if he accidentally blasts through his liver-which he's dangerously close to doing right now, by the way-and neither of them recovers from this?

But those thoughts aren't intrusive enough. They don't overthrow the flood of adrenaline through his bloodstream, or the rush of his pulse through his ears. They don't stop him from smiling through this.

In the end, though, Bakugou proves himself again as one of the top students in their batch. A kick at the back of his knees sends him crashing to the ground. It's a pretty bad fall, one that momentarily blackens his vision and stills his revolving arms into a jarring halt. He doesn't have a chance to get up or even roll over on his back before he feels Bakugou's weight on him and feels a piping hot hand push the back of his scalp down.

There's a moment where they don't exchange anything else but rapid, ragged breaths. Sen feels the adrenaline die down, making all his frayed nerves aware of all the new burns and bruises riddled all over his body. His arms feel numb from pushing the limits of his quirk. He couldn't help the grunt of pain that escapes from his dry throat when Bakugou pulls his head up briefly by the roots of his hair and pushes it back down again.

"I win, drill-fucker." The hiss tickles his ear and sends an odd, not-unpleasant sensation down his spine. Sweat from Bakugou's face drips down and falls in his open mouth, filling it with a sweet burning taste. "You can tell me that you're my little bitch now, if you want. Now's a good time as any."

"As if," growls Sen. With the last dregs of energy he doesn't know he has left, he wrestles his head out of Bakugou's grip, flips himself underneath him, and clasps his inert hand against his neck. He doesn't stop Bakugou's huge, sweet-smelling, sweat-and-blood-drenched hand from covering his face.

They stare each other down, hearts beating erratically, breaths not slowing down. Sen feels his gaze darken. Bakugou bends down, leaning his face so close to his that their noses almost touch, and he doesn't stop him.

"Fuck you, pretty boy." The growl reaches his ear almost affectionately. Tension of a questionable nature winds around them, like thin metal wires cutting through bone. He feels the blonde's heartrate go up, sees his pupils dilate within an extremely thinning ring of red. Fucker might as well be _in-love with him._ Sen couldn't stop the aberrant chuckle that escapes from his mouth.

"You wish, sweet-cheeks."

Annoyance flashes through his ruby red eyes briefly, and for a short moment he wonders if this is the moment his head is blown to oblivion. But Bakugou merely slaps him lightly on the cheek and stands up.

Sen is a little stunned as he watches the blonde stretch his tensed muscles this way and that, as if he's merely cooling down from a particularly heavy workout at the gym. When he's done, he shoves his bloodied arms in his pockets and stares him down.

"If you snitch on me, I'll kill you," he tells him gruffly. He's got that yankee stance on him again, and it's so ridiculous Sen laughs at him at his face.

"Nothing happened," he tells him, as he stands up from the burnt and pulverized soil, "and, not if I kill you first, you dickhead."

 _It's our little secret. We should do this again. Don't let anybody else fucking kill you or else I'll kill you twice over._

Bakugou seems to get it, if the exposed teeth on one upturned side of his mouth is any indication. With the slightest twitch of a bruised shoulder, the explosive blonde walks away and disappears with the sunset.

When Sen comes back to the 1-B dorm, with singed hair and torn clothes and cheeks red, Kosei and Itsuka almost piss their pants demanding what the fuck happened. "I fell. That's all," is what he tells them, before further ignoring their pleas to get himself to Recovery Girl before he drops dead.

They don't get it-he hasn't felt this alive, not in a long time. He even sees it when he looks at his eyes in the mirror and suddenly understands why the fuck Bakugou Katsuki, of all people, was waxing poetic over them. It's a good thing then that this definitely won't be the last time he'll rave over them, isn't it?

Body heavy, but chest inexplicably light, Sen passes out with the intoxicating taste of nitroglycerin in his mouth.

* * *

 **AN:** Holy crap this has 4k words. 4k words, again?! Am I that desperate to write these 1B kids? (answer: yes, yes I am)

So, when I re-read those few chapters about Sen to write this, I realize that a) he has a thing for calling his classmates by their first names, and b) maybe he isn't this fucked in the head, so yeah hahahaha. Still, I feel like I wrote him okay in this story so I hope it's passable for you guys~ and really, I know our boy Bakugou's growing up and getting less fucked in the head, but all the trauma he's gone through makes this kind of warped thinking possible for him don'tcha think

i also hope you guys aren't that disturbed, but these violent, psychological "fuck me over" romances are some of my fav genres in fiction~


	26. Day 26 - FakeDatingAU - TodoChako

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 26 - Fake Dating AU - TodoChako

* * *

"... so apart from the meds that Dr. Kendo from Neurology already gave this patient pre-op, I think we need to add another quirk suppressant to make sure that his bones remain solid post-op."

"Leave the medication adjustments to us, Yaoyorozu-kun. Aoyama-kun, take note!"

" _Oui, mes amies!_ " Aoyama does a little twirl in his place and turns his shining face to him. "Do we have to do anything else, Dr. Todoroki?"

 _Pink._

Todoroki Shouto blinks once, then twice, then another time as a particularly large sparkle gets in his eye. Yaoyorozu and Iida are staring at him rather incredulously, and he stares back at them.

 _Round._

"No, I think we're good."

Iida's glasses flash skeptically. "Are you sure, Todoroki-kun? You _were_ the first assist to Dr. Fukukado in this case."

 _Pink._

He nods. "Yaoyorozu endorsed everything you need to know about this patient. I'll come back later to check on him, too."

The sturdy intensivist makes another skeptical sound, but does not say anything more. "All right, if the neurosurgery service is finished, Aoyama-kun! Let us do rounds, starting from Bed 1!"

" _Oui, mon capitaine!_ " The intensive care team takes all their notes and charts and leaves, with Iida bellowing out one order after another, and Aoyama diligently taking note. He hears Yaoyorozu sigh next to him as she tucks her notes under her arm.

"Tough case, huh? I hope the patient makes it through," she says genuinely as they begin their walk from the ICU back to the wards. "And it took you guys seven hours to get that tumor out. You must be exhausted, Todoroki-san."

It was seven and a half hours, but Shouto doesn't bother correcting her, because he doesn't feel tired. He's used to long OR's by now, and if need be he could probably go in for another one right now. He makes a noncommittal sound and keeps his eyes forward.

 _… pink. Round. Bouncy…. soft…?_

"You okay?"

Shouto stops and glances at his co-resident. Her dark eyes are shining with worry as they stare right back at him, likely not missing a single detail on his expression.

"I'm okay."

There's a fifty-fifty chance that he's lying, he thinks, because he's not sure if he's okay. He isn't feeling particularly down, or miserable-well, at least no more than his default misery over his messed-up family life and the looming threat of Endeavor's latest harebrained scheme to subject him to a quirk marriage. But he isn't feeling particularly… _normal_ either. At least, he's sure it isn't normal to suddenly obsessively think about a particular shape, and a particular color, and a particular nurse-

"I think you need to eat," Yaoyorozu says, her worried gaze not going away. "Might be hypoglycemia. I'm sure you haven't had a chance to eat breakfast before you guys scrubbed in."

That's a good idea. Maybe it's all low blood sugar.

"I'll treat you to anything you like, Todoroki-san. You can't be sick now-you have that event with Endeavor tonight, right?"

Todoroki huffs. Maybe he wants to keep his blood sugar low, after all. "Don't remind me. I'd rather go on perpetual duty for a month than to go to that gala. Maybe I can convince Honenuki to switch duties with me."

"You shouldn't," Yaoyorozu says with a hint of humor. "If you don't go, I doubt that the situation with him would get any better. And it's just a few hours, right? Speaking of which, have you found someone to come with you yet?"

"No, none at all." He gives her the best pleading look he can give. He knows it isn't much, he barely feels his face move, but he hopes it'll work this time. "You can still come with me, Yaoyorozu. There's still time."

She makes a face of absolute reluctance and apology. "I really can't, Todoroki-san… you know I have a report to finish by tonight, and besides, once Endeavor _assumes_ we're together-"

"We can pretend to have a messy breakup tomorrow."

She laughs awkwardly and slaps him lightly on the arm. "You know that's not going to work. Your father… well, he's already interested enough with my quirk, and he's… um…"

"An asshole." There's a sudden bitter taste in his mouth. Yaoyorozu makes her own odd sound when she hears the inappropriate, yet adequate description of his inappropriate father. "It's okay. You're allowed to say so."

"Doesn't mean I will," she says, with all the dignity befitting of her. "By the way, about our next duty-"

 _"-ponytail. Paging Dr. Ponytail, please go to information. Paging Dr. Ponytail, to information please."_

Shouto blinks. He looks at Yaoyorozu, focusing on her twitching, insulted ponytail first, before he moves on to the absolutely flabbergasted expression on her face.

"Um," he says eloquently, when he finds himself speed-walking behind her when she starts rushing down to information, her heels clacking angrily behind her, "how do you know that they're paging you?"

She doesn't answer him, but he hears her mutter, _"I can't believe that man, how improper!_ " as they finally reach Information on the first floor. Shouto watches in awe as Yaoyorozu steps with a sense of indignation he's never seen on her before towards a guy wearing an apron, who for one reason or another is having a lively argument against Awase, 3rd year orthopedics resident and one of their former classmates in med school.

"Bakugou-san!" she calls out, hands on her hips, looking absolutely _livid._ Shouto briefly wonders if he's entered the twilight zone.

Apron-guy, who is apparently named Bakugou, sets his eyes on her and gives her a smug little smirk. To Awase, he goes, "See, Headband fucker? Told you she'd get it."

Awase only looks a little defeated, maybe a little surprised and insulted that the guy was looking for Yaoyorozu after all, but he doesn't show signs of backing down. "What kind of a moron would page a good and proper doctor by that nickname?!"

By this time though, the apron guy is already sauntering his way towards Yaoyorozu, that self-satisfied smile on his face not going away. "So, Dr. Ponytail. You ain't on call today, right?"

Shouto can see the struggle on the easily readable Yaoyorozu's face-it's obvious that she's really happy to see this man, for one reason or another, but she's also trying her hardest not to let it show. She tries to stiffen her upper lip as she says, "I'm _not,_ but… Why do you ask, Bakugou-san?"

"That's all I need to know." He grabs her hand, ignores the yelp of protest coming from the young doctor, and pauses. He turns his red eyes to Shouto, and, without an ounce of shame in his gaze, asks, "You can cover for her, right Dr. Blackjack?"

 _… Dr Blackjack?_ Shouto thinks passively. _Kinda old school._ But he nods all the same.

"Fuck yeah. Come on, Dr. Ponytail."

"B-but-Todoroki-san isn't-"

"He says he'll cover for you, all right?! And we're just across the street, you can run through traffic if their dumbasses manage to mess things up while you're not here-"

When Yaoyorozu looks back at Shouto, there's a mixture of conflict and thrill plain in her dark eyes. He gives him a small wave of a hand and says, "Honenuki and I got this. Have fun, Yaoyorozu."

The apron guy knows how to speed-walk, that's for sure. It isn't even a minute before he has successfully abducted Yaoyorozu out of plain sight. He huffs a little, and stares right back at Awase, who looks at him like he's _betrayed_ him or something.

"... she really isn't on call," he tells him matter-of-factly.

Awase makes an annoyed sound and goes in the opposite direction.

* * *

So. Now that Yaoyorozu has been stolen away by that explosive guy from the cafe down the street, Shouto is alone in the cafeteria.

As alone as he can be, he supposes. He isn't bragging at all when he concludes that there are about four different people taking sneaky photos of him - one when he enters the hall, two when he falls in line and orders zarusoba, and another when he takes a table in a dark, lonely corner in the cafeteria. He does his best to appear disinterested, even when one of the women accidentally forgot to turn the flash off her phone.

He sighs. People left and right tell him that objectively, he's attractive. He doesn't understand why it's important in any setting, and more importantly, he doesn't care. He just knows that he's tired of people taking his photos without his consent, and he's tired of turning down the admin's request for him to be an image model for the hospital.

It's why he enjoys it in the OR. At least with a mask, cap, gloves, and a gown on, his looks don't matter, only his skills and his knowledge of neurosurgery. Doesn't matter how tiring or nerve-wracking or how high the stakes are sometimes.

 _Pink. Round._

He bites down on one of his chopsticks. Damn, just thinking of the OR shoved his thoughts back in that weird loop. And he wonders, for the nth time that day, how and why he keeps thinking of Nurse Uraraka Ochako and her pink cheeks… on both ends.

Shouto hates himself for a lot of other reasons, but today he hates himself for having such debauched thoughts about one of the more capable OR staff in the hospital. He has always respected Uraraka, her general cheerful disposition, and her quick thinking during surgeries. The few curt words they've exchanged while scrubbing in and out weren't bad either. They're mostly of Uraraka, who always strives to do better, asking him about the case and how she can improve assisting next time, and him answering back to help her out.

But just one accidental look at her toned thighs and her shapely… um, _derriere,_ and suddenly he couldn't think of anything else. He tells himself that he isn't as perverted as he sounds, because it's not like he wants to touch her inappropriately or degrade her or anything terrible like that-he's seen his share of thighs and derrieres and such, in many different sizes and proportions, and his mind has never felt this… stimulated…? before…

But for Uraraka… he supposes it's because the ones on her face and the ones over there are equally rotund. Shouto is merely amazedat her proportions. Her symmetry is… _astounding_.

Looks like they're bouncy too. He wonders what she does to keep in shape. He wonders what it would feel like to grasp them-entirely with her consent of course, of course he wouldn't grope her without it. Actually, what those upper pink cheeks of hers will feel like, if he holds her blushing face in both his hands-

Shit. He's a fucking pervert. He wants to douse himself in lukewarm water. He manages to build frost on his cheek instead.

His thoughts are jarred when a commotion manifests itself near the entrance of the cafeteria. He looks briefly in that direction, sees flames, and immediately retracts his gaze.

Endeavor, professional hero, present #1 in Japan, walks over to his table with his arms crossed. "Shouto," he calls out, his voice commanding and annoying and gravelly. "You left me on read. Again."

He tries not to glare too much as he meets those cold, blue eyes of his, under tendrils of obnoxious flame. He should really tone it down when he's not on the field. "I was in the OR."

"You aren't now, are you?"

Shouto hums in disinterest. Endeavor makes an annoyed grunt and pulls the chair across from him. "So, Shouto, you must know why I visited you here in your place of work…"

He doesn't miss the way Endeavor's nose wrinkles in distaste as he says _place of work_ -making it plain how low he thinks of the quirks that people who aren't in the Hero Career track have. Shouto preemptively rolls his eyes so far back that he might as well be having a seizure.

"Who are you taking to the Pro Heroes Gala tonight?"

"I don't understand why you have to know right away."

The old man raises one flaming eyebrow at him. "I'm your father, for one. I have to approve of whoever it is you're planning to mate with-"

Shouto wants to vomit at his father's awful vocabulary.

"-and two, it's a public event. In my honor, I might add." Endeavor taps his fingers impatiently against his arm. Shouto knows that he hates things like this, but he has to do what he has to, to get the popular vote back. "So I will not risk having it ruined by you, if you bring someone who's unworthy of the Todoroki name-"

"Then don't bring me." Shouto slurps his soba as impolitely as he can as he actively ignores Endeavor's glare.

He hears the old man grumble under his breath. "What a waste, Shouto. You could have been on the red carpet next to me as a proper Pro Hero, saving lives and making a difference. I don't understand why you're letting your skills and your quirk go to waste in a place like this."

"We're saving lives and making a difference," he says evenly. "Not as obnoxious as _some heroes_ tend to do, granted, but yes."

Endeavor clicks his tongue. "You still haven't answered my question. Were you, by any chance, _bluffing_ when you said you were taking one of your co-workers to the gala?"

"I wasn't."

"... is it Yaoyorozu Momo?"

"No."

Endeavor somehow looks more annoyed. He wasn't bluffing at the beginning. He really thought that Yaoyorozu would agree to help him with this. It was silly of him to assume that she would, in hindsight. It's really creepy that the old man favors her above all others, just because of her quirk. "So? Should I contact Miruko and tell her you're interested?"

Shouto scowls. "She's ten years older than me. And I'm pretty sure she's already seeing someone."

"A woman, so it doesn't count." Ryukyu, to be precise. The old man sneers. It's not like the two women pros were hiding their relationship, so he isn't sure what possesses the old man to even have the idea in the first place.

Shouto doesn't say anything, just glares him down, as always. And as always, this has no effect on how unbearable he is. Endeavor raises a hand and grumbles, "What does someone have to do to get a waiter here-"

"This is a cafeteria."

Endeavor stares at him as if he doesn't understand. Shouto sighs and stands up. "I'll take care of it. What do you want?"

"Do they have _kuzumochi_?"

"... I highly doubt it."

Endeavor scowls. "Just a Mountain Dew then." He pauses for two seconds, then adds, "And Doritos, if they have Doritos. The blue ones."

Shouto immediately walks away from him, grateful for the few minutes he has not talking with him. He's a little disappointed to see that for once, the lunch line isn't that long, and he doesn't have enough time to cook up of a plan to avoid the impending disaster that is the gala that evening.

As he stares blankly at the colorful displays of candies and marshmallows lining the counter, he hears the answer piping up behind him.

* * *

"Ochako-chan? Have you checked all the forms for the patient who just went to the recovery area?"

Ochako glances at Mina, who is poring through a discombobulated mess of papers. "I did. Why? Is anything wrong?"

Mina taps a pen to her horns thoughtfully. "Yeah, looks like Doctoroki forgot to sign a whole bunch of orders here." She points to a lot of glaring blanks in the chart, where the neurosurgeon's signature is supposed to be. "We carried them out since Dr. Yaomomo paired him in these forms, but the ICU guys are gonna kill our asses for this. We need those signatures."

Ochako groans. Mina has her hands full in the recovery room, and Ochako's shift was supposedly over. Seems like it's her job to have him sign those, then. "Really? That sucks. But Doctoroki forgetting things? That isn't like him."

"True," the pink girl concurs, neatly bundling the papers and handing it to her. "He seems a little distracted today, eh? Maybe he's thinking of your sexy butt."

"Mina-chaaaan that's so fouuuuul," Ochako whines. She does _not_ appreciate the reminder of last night's fiasco, and how jovial Mina's cackling is.

"What? Did you think of us when you flashed him? I mean, Kiri and I are totally _peeved_ that Doctoroki saw your butt way before we did."

"Ugh. Of course you would tell your husband, Mina. Does the entire ER know about it now, too?" Ochako decides against using the employees' entrance next to the ER for the next ten years of service.

"Very likely." Why did she even share the incident with the hospital's biggest gossip, anyway? Mina gives her a winning smile despite the poisonous pouts that Ochako gives her and pats her on the back. "Anyways, love, just get these signed and you can enjoy your off. I bet you can catch him in the ICU if you make a run for it."

With obvious reluctance in her entire body, she gives Mina a quick wave of a partially-tattooed arm and rushes out of the OR.

When she gets to the ICU, however, she finds it devoid of any neurosurgeons who can help her. Aoyama meets her at the door and makes it a point to shield her body from Dr. Iida. " _Mon ami,_ do not dare show him incomplete paperwork. Find Dr. Todoroki _rapidement!_ I shall hold the fort 'til then."

"Thanks Aoyama-kun, I owe you my life. Do you know where he could be?"

Aoyama flutters his sparkly eyelashes in thought. "I heard that Mademoiselle Momo wanted to treat him to lunch at the cafeteria. He might have skipped breakfast to do the surgery, you see."

Oh. That might explain why his concentration was shot, better than her butt can, at least. And also, Dr. Yaomomo-of course the prettiest, most talented doctor who's ever walked the surface of planet Earth is the one taking care of Doctoroki. She swallows down that bitter pill, thanks Aoyama again, and rushes to the cafeteria.

When she gets there, the first person she sees are Kirishima and Sero, who are chatting over their lunches. "Hey guys," she says breathlessly, trying not to be too conscious of her butt, "have you seen Doctoroki?"

Luckily, neither of them make any rude remarks or any disturbing glances down below. She has nothing to worry about, they're both _great_ at respecting women, and she feels silly doubting them in the first place. "He's over there, Uraraka-chan," the redhead points to the counter, where true enough, the dual-toned doctor is staring passively at the candies on the shelf, "but I wouldn't go there if I were-"

She ignores the rest of the sentence, mumbles a thank you, and rushes there. The faster she gets those signatures, the less time she has to spend being awkward around Dr. Todoroki, and the faster she can get home, take a nap, and convince herself not to think about anxiety-inducing things.

"Dr. Todoroki!" she calls. She tries not to huff and puff too much, even though she ran from the OR to the ICU to the cafeteria.

Dr. Todoroki Shouto turns around in slow motion, through what must be a rose-coloured screen. Being stuck inside the OR all shift long, Ochako doesn't often see this version of him: tall and broad and dignified in a tasteful button-down shirt, slacks, and a crisp, white doctor's coat that makes him look like the very vision of health and wellness. She admits that seeing all that up close, and also knowing about the tattoo he hides underneath all those layers, leaves her a little weak at the knees.

His usually inexpressive eyes are a little wider, for some reason. Ochako isn't too sure, maybe she's just flustered seeing him in such impressive lighting.

 _Okay, Ochako, concentrate… get signatures, go home._ "Um, I need you to sign these pathways. They're for the patient we just transferred in the ICU-"

For a moment, she doesn't know if she accidentally spoke to him in a foreign language, because those mismatched eyes are looking at her oddly. Like she's an alien from outer space.

She tries again. _Japanese, Ochako. Japanese._ "I think you just forgot them, Doc, but we really need them for completion purposes…"

Suddenly, something entirely different happens in his eyes. It's not confusion anymore, but a bright, _Eureka!_ type of gleam. Todoroki opens his mouth, hesitantly at first, before he speaks. "I'll sign," he says very carefully, like he's explaining the chances of survival to a very poor patient, "if you help me out."

Ochako raises her eyebrows in curiosity. "Um… Doc, no matter what, you _really_ have to sign these, it's hospital policy."

"Please. I need you, Uraraka."

The tiny little harassed nurse with her tiny little harassed brain instantly feels herself dumb down more than enough at those words. So when Todoroki suddenly reaches out for both her hands to envelop them in his, the stuttering shut down of all her cerebral functions must be audible to outside ears.

"D-Doc…?" she manages to say. His eyes are looking right into hers, so she doesn't notice the tall shadow looming over both of them.

She barely catches the very soft, "No matter what, just play along," he mutters directly in her ear before he puts an arm around her and turns them both to the source of the shadow.

* * *

Shouto doesn't have time to regret all his life choices by the time he places his arm quite comfortably around Uraraka's shoulder, but he's sure he will later, when all this is over and the nurse has already likely cursed him and his stupid ideas to the depths of hell.

It isn't just Endeavor who's staring at the couple like they're two strips of udon in a bowl of soba; by this time, the entire cafeteria is watching them with their mouths hanging open in astonishment.

"Shouto," the old man starts. He's obviously uncomfortable and unprepared for this, and Shouto thinks that this rare moment of impulse must be worth it. "Is this… her?"

"Yes. She's the one."

He feels Uraraka silently choke on something. He grips her shoulder a little more firmly, hoping that it helps a little. He isn't sure if it does, because her cheeks turn from pink to red to purple.

"I see." Endeavor turns his gaze to the young nurse. She already feels small next to Shouto, so when the old man bends over slightly to look at her, she appears even smaller, like she's a mythical creature who lives in the forest and his father is an ugly, ugly troll. "What's your name, then?"

It takes her a couple of seconds to snap out of a trance. "Uh-Uraraka Ochako, Mr. Endeavor, sir. I work as a nurse here."

She holds out her hand, and Endeavor reluctantly takes it in his giant one. "I see. What's your quirk?"

Uraraka looks at him oddly. For people who aren't pros or in hero training, asking about quirks right off the bat is a little odd and a little rude, after all. She stammers, "I-I can make things float, sir."

"Hrm," Endeavor grumbles. He obviously _isn't_ pleased-Shouto sees judgmental eyes go over the incomplete tattoo on her arm-but she has a quirk, at least, and not one of those mutation ones that distort humanoid features. Endeavor doesn't like those quirks, either. So he doesn't complain, at least not then. "And how do you do that, Nurse Uraraka?"

Shouto stops himself from huffing. Of course he focuses on the quirks first, and not the nature of their (pretend, spur-of-the-moment) relationship. He's going to spend the rest of his residency training apologizing to Uraraka for this.

To his surprise though, Uraraka answers him easily. "Oh, like this, sir."

Shouto sees the precise moment that the pinky buffer goes down and touches Endeavor's hand. Instantly, the giant-of-a-man wheezes and struggles in an undignified manner, holding on desperately to the small girl's hand to keep himself from floating to the ceiling.

It is a valiant struggle not to laugh his ass off right there and then.

"I can float up to three tons of anything using this quirk," she explains brightly, blatantly ignoring how his father is turning green in zero-gravity, "but any more than that, or if I use it on myself, I tend to suffer bouts of vertigo… luckily, I don't have to do this very often, because I'm a civilian."

"I can see that," Endeavor grits out, kicking his foot out to stabilize himself and failing, "you can let me down now, Nurse."

"All right, sir." She lets him go, causing him to float a few more inches upward before she touches all ten fingers together. The moment she says _release_ in that playful voice of hers, all of Endeavor's weight comes back to him, sending him crashing down to the ground in a heap. "Oh-oh my gosh, are you okay Mr. Endeavor sir? I'm sorry, I got carried away-"

Shouto has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep his face impassive, as Uraraka rushes to the old man's side to help him up. Endeavor is a well-built pro hero who can handle a fall from even higher heights than that, but he still grunts and rubs his lower back like a geezer with arthritis as the small girl helps him up.

The fall leaves an impression on the guy, at least. "I'm okay. That's… quite a quirk you have, young lady." There's a layer of respect in his tone that wasn't there before. It's impressive that Uraraka is able to achieve so much by making the old man drop onto the floor of a busy hospital cafeteria like a sack of potatoes. "You should have gone pro. I can foresee many useful applications to your quirk for hero work."

Uraraka bashfully rubs the back of her head. "Thank you sir. I really love my work here, though."

"Hm. You and Shouto both. Just why, I can't fathom." He straightens out his electric-blue costume and nods to his son. "So I suppose I'll see the two of you tonight. Don't be late, Shouto."

Without further ado, Endeavor turns around to leave, splitting the crowd of gawkers into two like the parting of the Red Sea. When the trail of flame completely disappears from plain sight, Shouto gives in to the urge to exhale.

"Um," Uraraka begins from his side, big brown eyes impossibly wide, pink cheeks flickering in confusion, "Wh… what was that about…?"

He turns to her and tries to look as apologetic as he can. He isn't sure what his face looks like, though, as again he doesn't feel it move very much. "Today... the two of us are dating."

A weird, panicked sound comes out of her mouth, devoid of all the previous confidence that she showed the old man before. "D… dating." She says the word as if it's a hot coal that someone shoved in her mouth. "M… me and… Doctoroki…?"

Shouto nods. "Just for now. Tonight, to be precise. At the annual Pro Heroes Gala."

"... oh."

She is absolutely petrified-not even blinking or visibly breathing, and the young doctor begins to worry. Shouto wonders if there's a marble statue quirk user somewhere nearby who hit her with a quirk. Is the prospect of dating a mess of a man such as him, for just one very publicized night with a bunch of stuck-up pros, that terrible?

 _Of course it is, Shouto. Uraraka's a nice girl who doesn't deserve any of this. Be gentle. Be sorry._ "I'm… sorry about this," he says, attempting the sorriest voice he can muster, but his vocal cords barely bend the flatness of his default tone, and he berates himself for it. "It's just that my father is terrible, and I'm cornered."

"... oh," she repeats. She stumbles a little, and Shouto's arm shoots out around her waist to stabilize her.

"I'm stupid for doing this, I know," he tells her, even as she remains glassy-eyed. "And I know you can do better than me, but it's just for tonight."

"J… just… tonight…?" Her cheeks are actually _quivering_ now. A weaker man would have succumbed to the temptation to prod them with a finger, but Shouto doesn't give in. It's barely the appropriate time for it.

"I'll make it up to you, Uraraka." He has to lower his voice as the curious crowd begins to move around them again. He does not want _anyone_ to find out about his fake dating scheme. If Endeavor catches wind of it, he might find himself in an awkward dinner with Miruko-san and a handful of gossip that he doesn't want to deal with. "If you go out with me, I'll do anything you want me to. Even-"

He plans to say, _covering for you when we get another Jeanist case,_ because he knows Uraraka really dreads those, but before he can finish his sentence, Uraraka stiffens and falls like a tree sawed in half by a lumberjack.

"!" He manages to catch her in his arms before her head hits the floor. In an instant, he feels a commotion happening around the two of them.

"Doctoroki!" Kirishima Eijirou stomps his way through the crowd, with Sero Hanta trailing behind him. "What happened to Uraraka-chan?! Did Endeavor say something?"

"Um," Shouto begins eloquently, as he finally gets a good reason to lightly tap the girl's cheek. _Pink. Round. Soft._ He's worried about her, of course, but it's… softer than he ever imagined. His answer stutters in his head as his cold hand remains on her skin. "Nothing much."

Kirishima and Sero obviously don't know what to do about that response. The dark-haired nurse scratches the back of his head awkwardly. "Okay…? S-so, um… do you want help taking care of your… _girlfriend_ , Doctoroki?"

Sero says this very, very cautiously, like he's driving through a street full of potholes. Shouto blinks at them, almost _hearing_ how everyone around them holds their breaths in anticipation.

"Yeah, that'd be great."

As if she's drifting in and out of consciousness, Uraraka groans in his arms. He hears a distant sobbing in the background. Kirishima and Sero look at each other, a silent message passing through, apparently. Their mouths simultaneously curl into toothy grins.

"Okay. Let's carry her to the locker rooms."

As the three of them lift Uraraka and support her by the shoulders, the gears in Shouto's head mercilessly shift. He's done it this time, didn't he? He just admitted to be dating one of his co-workers-a nurse he works with in the OR, at that. He knows all about the potentially ugly rumors that can arise from that. Damn, he really, _really_ should have thought this through.

The media's going to have a field day over it. Now it's not just him who will be mercilessly hounded by all these vultures, but Uraraka as well. The gravity and the stupidity of his own hare-brained scheme to escape his father's control bears down on him.

He really doesn't care about how he's going to look like to the media, but… how is he going to pull this off, without compromising Uraraka's integrity?

Beside him, Uraraka moans again, her head rolling to his side, her soft cheek pressing on his shoulder. The scent of her sweet shampoo invades his nostrils. His brain goes blank, instantaneously wiped free of all anxiety.

He steels himself. He's going to pull off this fake-dating scheme and protect Uraraka, if it's the last thing he does.

* * *

 **AN:** Okay, it's a bit of a struggle for me to write in Shouto's POV for this one. When I write him it's usually in a serious setting, so writing him in a self-indulgent rom-com is really challenging. I hope he didn't seem too OOC in this one~

So we're starting to see the background of this AU-pro-heroes exist in this world, but for many of our characters, they chose to serve people in the healthcare world instead. I wonder why? Where's the turning point? Please stay tuned!

The Dr. Ponytail scene was supposed to be placed in the BakuMomo chapter but I wasn't able to flesh it out properly. I plan to write it in Momo's POV too, in the separate fic I'll publish after I finish this challenge.

This story will be continued, of course~ four chapters by my planning. If you enjoyed this I hope you stick around to read that one, once I finish it :)


	27. Day 27 - Second Chance - TodoTooru

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 27 - Second Chance - TodoTooru

 _AN: for the lovely Tasia'sEndlessDreams - thank you for being so darn lovely! This one's for you!_

* * *

 _This time… I_ _'ll get him, for sure._

Or so she says, but Hagakure Tooru still hesitates. She has three cards to go in her hand, and she sees that across from her, Todoroki Shouto has seven cards left to shed. Objectively speaking, she's in the lead, and she's halfway to winning her little bet against him.

Despite this, though, Todoroki doesn't seem fazed in the least. Which makes her nervous, because if he isn't worried, then maybe he still has something up his sleeve. And she really doesn't want to lose this game. After all, loser has to do anything the winner asks, anything at all!

She tries to stare at his face, tries to read what he's thinking, but it's so _hard-_ she can't get past the fact that his face is so blank, and he's so… unjustly _good-looking_ , and he's staring right back at her.

"Your turn," he says, as if he thinks she's forgotten already, because she's taking an awfully long time to put down her next card.

Tooru huffs. "I know! Gimme a little more time to think, Todoroki-kun! _Mou!_ "

The corner of his mouth turns upward, juuuust a little bit, and Tooru feels her heart go into overdrive. "All right. Take your time."

"Fine!" She knows she's probably being annoying, but she can't help it. Todoroki is pretty good at confusing her. It's just so hard to understand what he's thinking.

And she thought she has the advantage in these kinda games, because darn it, she's the invisible one! She doesn't even have a face to read! So why does she think that he knows exactly what she's thinking!? It's not fair!

Her invisible hands hover over the queen of spades and the queen of hearts. She doesn't know if she should play ones or twos-Todoroki has seven cards to go, after all, and the chances that he could fight against a pair is pretty high. But if the rest of the cards he has left are terrible, then she could win this easily…

After more fussing and fussing, she finally decides on putting down the queen of spades.

Todoroki blinks at the card, and then at her. "Sure?... that's too bad, Hagakure. No second chances."

Tooru feels herself break out into a sweat. W-why would he say that?! She doesn't know if he's bluffing or not, but in any case, it's against the rules to take back her card now! "I… I put it down already, Todoroki-kun! So there! Don't try to trick me, because…"

"Mhm. I warned you."

The smile he gives her is so cute, it's deadly.

 _Oh no._

Breathlessly, Tooru watches as Todoroki quietly places the two of diamonds on the pile. And then a straight hand. And finally, the four of clubs.

"Nooooooo!" Tooru squeals dramatically, throwing herself in the floor between them. "Y-you sneaky-!"

Todoroki huffs in amusement. "Not my fault you're very easy to read, Hagakure."

"How! How am I easy to read! I'm _invisible_!" She's just throwing a tantrum now. She ought to be embarrassed, but her indignation only grows when the boy starts chuckling at her antics.

"You just are, Hagakure. I know what you're thinking all the time." He crawls closer to her and gestures for her to get into position.

With a hearty _harrumph_ , Tooru relents and crosses her legs. Todoroki obliges and places his head at her lap, shimmying a little bit to make himself more comfortable. "I'm claiming my 30 minute scalp massage now. Please and thank you."

"Fine," she grumbles playfully, placing phantom fingers into his soft hair. "You're lucky you're cute, Todoroki-kun, and your hair is so nice."

Todoroki hums contentedly, closes his eyes and begins to melt under her touch.

* * *

 **AN:** Ah, sometimes it's refreshing to write something short and straightforward~

They're playing Pusoy Dos here. It's the only card game I know apart from old maid lol


	28. Day 28 - PhotographerModel - IiTodo

**Unlikely and Unexpected  
** Day 28 - Photographer/Model - IiTodo

* * *

Juzo crosses his arms contemplatively as his eyes go over the photos splayed before him. Next to him, he knows that Kaibara has the same confused expression, or at least a surlier version of it. They both regard their contributing photographer for this month, Iida Tenya-san, with the most polite expressions they can give.

Iida seems to sense their apprehensions, at least. "Is there anything wrong with my photographs, Editor-in-Chief Honenuki-kun? Photographer Kaibara-kun?"

"Well," Juzo begins carefully, picking up a photo from the line of photos, examining it under the bright fluorescent lighting of the editor's office. Maybe he's just missing something? "… Kaibara-kun, what do you think of the photographs? You are the expert, after all."

Kaibara spends about five seconds humming thoughtfully, also picking up two photographs, looking at them side-by-side. "Well… objectively speaking, the photographs are good. As expected, you really have a talent for photography."

Indeed. They assigned Iida to photograph fashion shots, and it looks like he did a good job out of it-the clothes look high fashion against the shoot location in the streets of Hong Kong. The Glasses Photog beams initially at Kaibara's appraisal, but this instantly falters when he notices that the other photographer's surly gaze doesn't change. "But it seems you have other criticisms to my work?"

Juzo senses that they're both on the same wavelength when he answers, "The model… I don't get the model."

"The model, you say?"

"Yeah," Juzo answers with the brightest tone he can. "He's good looking, I agree. Carries the clothes well. But his face…"

Iida looks horrified at their insinuation. "You mean to tell me you are rejecting his face?! It's his scar, isn't it?! I must tell you, this will reflect poorly on your distinguished magazine if you set such discriminatory and unrealistic standards of beauty-"

Truth be told, neither Juzo nor Kaibara has seen this model's work before, so they wonder how this man got the job. No doubt he looks like a model-has a small face, with a distinct scar on the left side as Iida mentioned, and dual-toned hair that somehow works with his overall look. The editor surmises that this man will have a number of fans and supporters following his work closely, based on appearance alone. So Juzo denies his accusation very adamantly. "No, we aren't talking about the scar on his face, but rather-"

"... his face is the same all throughout," Kaibara cuts in curtly.

Juzo nods sagely in agreement.

"The same?"

"Yes. It's the same." Kaibara picks out five random photos out of the pile and sets them in a straight line in front of the enthusiastic man in glasses. "See? He wears the clothes well, definitely, but he has the same… dead-fish-eyes expression in each and every one of them. I feel kind of dead inside when I see his face like this-"

That's a little harsh, Kaibara-kun, but Juzo nods in agreement.

"Therefore, I don't think these photos will work, Tenya-san," Kaibara finishes with a slight bow of his head.

Juzo gives the stunned Iida an apologetic look. "I think there are… some passable pictures here, Iida-san," he supplies carefully. He doesn't want to waste the tenacious photographer's efforts completely, and being a flexible man, Juzo thinks of a compromise among them. "Perhaps we can add a few of them to the webzine instead?"

Kaibara gives him a questioning look beside him, but doesn't say anything.

Iida, however, remains steadfast. "If I may comment, Editor-in-Chief Honenuki Juzo-kun, I truly do not understand the criticisms! Even though the appearance of my model, Todoroki Shouto-kun, is avant-garde compared to most, why, I daresay he's the most expressive model I've ever worked with!"

Iida ends his declaration with such passion that Juzo feels the air around the photographer swirl.

Kaibara's side-eye is getting more piercing by the second-Juzo knows that he's asking him silently to please end this discussion already, but, dare he say it, the white-haired editor-in-chief's heart is just a little touched by his enthusiasm. "I suppose I can allow you to explain your photographs a bit more, Iida-san, if you please."

"With pleasure!" Iida takes one of the photos, showing the model, Todoroki, looking straight at the camera. "In this photo, I have asked him to express the joy one feels feeling the first moments of cool, before the rain falls on a humid night in the city!"

"... okay…?"

"And in this one!" The passionate photographer picks another one, where Todoroki is standing on a bridge, looking straight at the camera. "Clearly, one sees the bittersweet tang one tastes upon walking along the river, remembering a first love who went away to pursue different dreams in a different land-"

"... it's the same…" Kaibara mumbles under his breath.

"And this one!" Todoroki is standing against a wall, hands in pockets, looking just a little bit away from the camera. "I call this, ' _I Remember My Father Well'_ -a study in sorrow and pain, of familial relationships gone awry, of the dying hope for redemption-"

Juzo squints in interest. "… I kinda see it?" Although, he really doesn't see it very well.

Kaibara's judgmental side-eye doesn't leave him.

"Oh, this is one of my favorites," Iida picks up one in the pile. Todoroki is in the park, holding a ginger cat, looking straight at the camera. "Childhood innocence! You can see the joy alight in his eyes so clearly! I feel light-hearted and innocent when I look at this photo over and over!"

"Oh. I like that one too," Juzo says brightly. He's honest about this one. The cat is very cute.

"See? You understand, don't you, Honenuki-kun!" Iida is on the verge of over-excitement by that point. "I can see how easy it is to misunderstand the various subtleties of the facial expression of my wonderful muse, so I hope this clears things out!"

"... it's the same…" Kaibara repeats under his breath. Juzo chuckles lightly next to him.

"Well, if you put it that way, Iida-san… I do understand the passion you have for your muse." He taps his fingers together in deep thought. Maybe he really _can_ put this guy on the webzine. "I'll speak with the other editors over this. How does that sound?"

Iida puts a hand to his heart and blushes. "Y-your consideration means a lot to me, Editor-in-Chief, Honenuki Juzo-kun!"

They adjourn their meeting then, and Kaibara and Juzo gesture for Iida to come out of their office first before they follow.

Outside, they see a man with a distinct red-and-white pattern to his head, who could be no other than the male model and muse, Todoroki Shouto-san. He seems to be waiting for Iida-san. He looks up at the tall man with the same blank expression on his face. Juzo and Kaibara watch their interaction with mild interest.

"I'm sorry that it took some time, Todoroki-kun! Have you been waiting long?"

Todoroki stares at him.

"You're hungry? Why, you did not have to wait for me! But now that we're done, what do you want to eat?"

Todoroki makes a small, noncommittal sound.

"Zarusoba! Of course! Then, let us find a place for zarusoba! I do feel like eating traditional Japanese food myself… perhaps Yukihira's-"

Todoroki looks at him and nods.

"Very eloquent, Todoroki-kun! I do agree that they have the most creative dishes! But we have to hurry, else we'll run out of seats-"

As the interesting duo leaves and disappears from their line of vision, Juzo hears Kaibara next to him make a small sound. "… it's the same," he repeats under his breath.

Thoroughly amused, Juzo looks at him, all sparkles and good cheer. "Yeah… it's totally the same."

"Astounding conclusion, Todoroki-kun!" they hear Iida bellow from a distance, in response to pure silence.

* * *

 **AN:** based on the scene in the manga where Iida says he 's able to read Todoroki;s face really well :)


	29. Day 29 - Snowed In - KuroNuki

Never-ending darkness. Cruel, cutting winds. An eternal halestorm that threatens to break the very structure of the building. Cold. Unrelenting, unforgiving cold.

"Kuroiro-kun, what are you doing here with the lights off?"

Shihai feels himself materializing on his bright blue computer chair rather anticlimactically when Honenuki turns the lights on. He tries not to let his lower eyelid twitch too much when he swivels in his chair and faces him with all the dreariness that befits this difficulty that they're facing.

"I was staring right into the eye of the storm," he tells him grimly. "This bitter cold that left us stranded and wretched in this hopeless place-"

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Honenuki cuts in brightly, standing next to him to stare at the scene outside. The portion of UA that they see outside the window of the small study lounge in the library is pure white and impassable. Shihai surmises that it's beautiful, like death and despair is beautiful. "I like looking at the snow too-everything looks great blanketed in white. I mean, it's too bad we got stuck in the library, but it's really nice to look at from where we are. Also makes you think how nice it is to be safe and warm here, right?"

Shihai grumbles in affirmation. Honenuki, despite his macabre appearance, is one of the brightest persons he's had the pleasure of knowing. It astonishes him that in a situation like this, his demeanor manages to be the exact opposite of his own.

"Anyway, here. I made this for you, Kuroiro-kun."

The man of darkness takes the peony-pink cup of liquid from him and stares at the sullied reflection of the whites of his eyes and the white of his hair from within its shadowy surface. He is reminded that at the end of it all, he is merely two specks of white that disappear when he closes his eyes-nary a blink away from the sweet solitude of non-existence. "What is it?"

"Hot chocolate."

"Mhm." Shihai takes a sip. The bitterness floods his mouth, like blood in wine. Like cyanide. Like the first bite of the forbidden fruit, dipped in poison.

Honenuki watches him curiously as his eyes crease upon the first sip. Blinking, he raises his own mug-one that says _World's #1 Librarian_ on it, and carefully asks him, "Do you want this one? I put marshmallows in it."

Shihai stares at him in deathly silence for five seconds. "... yes."

"Okay," Honenuki says with an amused smile.

They switch cups. Shihai takes a sip from the librarian cup. This time, the bitterness entwines itself with the sickening sweetness of the marshmallows-like the fleeting joys with which humanity dulls itself, anesthesised from the inevitability of their demise.

"You like it?"

"Yes. It's nice."

Honenuki gives him a toothy grin. "Good. Nothing like hot chocolate for snowy weather like this, right? Makes you forget that we're actually stranded." He takes a sip from the bitter chocolate. Shihai doesn't even see him flinch as he drinks it calmly. "I wasn't sure what you'd like, so I made two kinds. I wouldn't have guessed that you had a sweet tooth though, Kuroiro-kun."

Shihai frowns at this. "But what of the taste that your mortal vessel desires, Honenuki? I don't want you suffering for my sake."

He shrugs. "I'm okay with either one. I'm flexible with a lot of things, as you know. I'm just glad that you're enjoying something that I made."

The man of darkness clicks his tongue. "Surely there are things-convictions, strong beliefs that even you will not bend…"

Honenuki hums contemplatively. Shihai watches his eyes, deep and dark against his cadaverous profile, as he watches the violent swirls of ghost white winds crash against the struggling trees. It's an interesting view, white watching white, and the darkness looming behind.

"You mean, if I like anything definitely, without question?" he asks, voice as light and carefree as always. "Like… something I'm super sure about, that I won't just switch over or anything like that?"

"Yes, that's precisely what I mean-"

Suddenly, Shihai sees a lot of white in his field of vision, and it isn't the snow. He feels Honenuki's surprisingly warm body embracing his dark form all over, feels his perpetually exposed teeth make contact against the pure black skin of his cheek.

"Yeah," Honenuki answers decidedly, staring right into his eyes with a happy crease in his own. "You, of course."

Shihai feels all the darkness seep away from him in an instant. Never-he's never been held by anyone this closely before-the embrace of his corpse-like classmate is warm, very much unlike the darkness he embraces everyday. It's strange, it's novel, it's warm but it sends shivers down his spine. It's… exhilarating.

He's just thankful that the surge of warmth flooding his cheeks then couldn't possibly stain the pigmentation of his skin, which is purely devoid of even a glimmer of light. Pure, unmarred darkness cannot possibly betray his throbbing heart, the lack of air in his lungs, the thrill he feels in all his nerves and all over his body-

"You're blushing, Kuroiro-kun," Honenuki whispers in his ear, making him lose his hold on reality for a bit.

"... damn it, Honenuki. Don't tease me."

"... okay. I won't." He puts those teeth on his cheek again. Shihai thinks that it doesn't feel bad at all, and lets Honenuki hold him closer and revels in the other boy's warmth.

Outside, the storm rages on.


	30. Day 30 - Body Swap - IzuMina

**Unlikely and Unusual  
** Day 30 - Body Swap - IzuMina

 _AN: Last one! This is requested by Teto12. Hope you like this~_

* * *

"Deku-kun, hold still! Try not to close your eye, okay?"

Izuku struggled under her grasp as she prods the inside of his eye with another pencil of sorts. He really wanted to keep still, not make any whiny noises, and to be a good boy about this, but really, make-up isn't one of the more pleasurable things he's had to go through for this assignment. When his eye flutters closed again by its own volition, he whimpers. He bows his head so quickly in apology that he almost hit Ashido's forehead in the process. "I'm-I'm sorry, Ashido-san, I'm really not used to this-"

Ashido Mina makes a small, frustrated sound with her mouth. "I know, Deku-kun, but don't forget this is for a mission. You gotta be a pro and take this like a man, okay?" She giggles then, and corrects herself. "Rather, take it like a woman? Come on, we only have a little bit to go."

The 'little bit' is part of a long process that took them all morning. The hapless pro began the day stripping down to his unmentionables in front of the acid hero, to be spray-pinked in many areas that won't see the light of day. After his body, his green hair was next, although Mina says apart from coloring it pink and attaching horns, they don't have to do much, since they both have the same fluffy natural perm that goes out in all directions. Then they decided on clothes, which should be loose enough to hide the bulk of his muscle, but tight enough that the drug lord they're tailing on the fancy yacht party would take interest in him. Then a quick lesson in walking in killer cigarette heels without toppling over…

Women are strong and scary and resourceful, is the lesson that Izuku learns then. He tries not to blush too much when Mina carefully lifts his chin to stare at his face. "All right~ you have lovely eyelashes, Deku, has anyone ever told you that?"

"N-no…" he stammers, a little fearful of the new metal tool in her hands that has scissor-handles. "A-are you going to cut them off-"

"No, silly. This is just an eyelash curler. Now hold still~"

Izuku tries his best again, and after that, Mina applies more glitter and shine to various parts of his face. When she's done, even Izuku gasps at the sight that greets him in the mirror.

Pink skin, bright eyes, cheeks that glow with the lights of the studio mirror. His mossy mop, although styled the same way he does when he's not in disguise, somehow looks more glamorous in its new cotton-candy shade. "Wow, Ashido-san, I look…"

"Hot," she concludes for him, with a proud shake of her shoulders and hips. "Now all we have to do is to put in these contacts, and you're me!"

"And… I'm you," he says breathlessly. Now that she's stopped poking and prodding his eyes with all sorts of implements, Izuku is able to see Mina clearly-her skin is spray-tanned to match Izuku's, and like him she dyed her hair to his own moss-green shade. Her arms have the same scars that Izuku has collected over the years, and even his freckles were placed in precision points over her face.

She hasn't put on her binder yet, or the body-suit thing their agency made for this occasion, so she could replicate the muscle bulk of Izuku's arms and legs on her, so he's still able to appreciate the feminine curves of her arms and waist and hips. He knows it isn't the right time to think of how weird and… and _sexy_ it is to see Mina-no, to see himself in this form, but…

Mina gives him a knowing smile. "Why, Deku. I wonder what you're thinking about, staring at yourself with eyes that look like that…"

He falters and shakes his head, almost dislodging the fake horns on his head. "I'm-just, really s-surprised at how we both look right now-"

She saunters closer to him, looks at him straight in the eyes with eyes that look like his. "We can do this again in the future, outside of a mission… if you want…?"

Many inappropriate images come to Izuku's head then, that make him unable to give a proper response apart from swallowing his spit stupidly and nodding uselessly. Mina laughs jovially and pats him at the shoulder.

"Okay, babe, seriously, we need to be ready soon! Come on, final touches. Now."

He sits down on the chair, again like a good boy, as Mina makes final adjustments.

* * *

 **AN:** Wow I finished the challenge! Cannot believe!

If y'all are still interested in these rarepairs and stories, or want me to write something, or want to talk to me or argue with me about anything, please visit me on my tumblr! my handle is junionigiri. :)


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